A status conference was held in the Hague before the start of the appeals procedure against the former president of Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic.
After the introductory speech of the court president, Karadzic, seemingly in good health, presented a number of additional requests that would facilitate his stay in detention. He asked for a laptop, access to Skype, a TV channel in Serbian and a refrigerator in the cell.
Karadzic is again in the Hague courtroom today.
“My health is substantial, much better and I feel significantly better,” Karadzic said.
But he claims that prisoners are in detention in poor conditions and had certain requests. Among other things, he is looking for a laptop and access to Skype.
“I do not understand at all why it is so difficulties to get a laptop – I asked that before, we should be given access to the internet, provided we do not upload something on it but certainly download,” he said.
And Karadzic also asked to have access to a TV channel in the Serbian language and a refrigerator in the cell:
“As for television, we had two television stations from Bosnia – one Serbian and one Muslim, we do not have either now, so we hope that this will be solved, although it seems we will vote, so if the Croats do not vote for Serbian television, we will not get it.”
Karadzic also spoke about the method of serving sentences and what he calls “detainees’ restrictions.” He asked Justice Theodore Meron to request the UN Security Council to change that. However, the presiding judge was clear:
“You seem to think I have unlimited power, but it’s not like that.”
We recall that Karadzic was pronounced guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats by the first-instance verdict announced on March 24 last year, terrorizing the population of Sarajevo with artillery and sniper attacks and for taking UN peacekeepers hostages. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Both the defense and the prosecution appealed. What’s next?
(Source: N1.ba)
