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Karadzic Demands New War Crimes Trial

14 August 2012 03:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic has asked the Hague Tribunal to start a new trial over his alleged war crimes and genocide citing numerous flaws in the work of UN prosecutors, the Serbian media said, APA reports quoting Ria Novosti.

Karadzic, who is defending himself at the trial, claims that the current trial â€œgot off on the wrong footâ€ as prosecutors were late in disclosing evidence favorable to his case and he had not received at least 400 documents to study on time.

"Dr. Radovan Karadzic hereby moves for an order granting him a new trial," said a petition by Karadzic disclosed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and cited by the Serbian media on Monday.

Karadzic, 67, was arrested in 2008 in Belgrade after more than a decade on the run.

His trial started on October 26, 2009 but it has been hit by several delays since, as the war crimes suspect made several attempts to hold up the proceedings.

Karadzic originally faced 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the Hague Tribunal in late June dropped one genocide charge against him on the basis that prosecutors had failed to provide enough evidence.

The court, however, refused to dismiss the second genocide charge, relating to the murders of up to 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.

Karadzic insists he is innocent of all charges brought against him.

He is expected to start presenting his defense arguments in October as prosecutors wrapped up their case in May.