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Radovan Karadzic was found guilty on one count of genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.Video provided by Newsy Newslook
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic sits in the courtroom for the reading of his verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, on March 24, 2016.(Photo: Robin Van Lonkhuijsen, AFP/Getty Images)
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was found guilty Thursday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of genocide<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the 44-month siege of Sarajevo during the 1990s, and nine other war crimes.
About 8,000 Muslim men and boys<span style="color: Red;">*</span>died during the siege in Srebrenica in 1995, making it the worst war crime<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Europe since World War II. Karadzic, 70, was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>sentenced<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to 40 years in prison.
Karadzic was tried<span style="color: Red;">*</span>before a United Nations war crimes tribunal in Europe and faced 11 charges.
Presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Karadzic is criminally responsible for murder, attacking civilians and terror for overseeing the deadly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during the country's war.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Earlier in the day, the U.N.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>court acquitted him<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of another charge of genocide<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Bosnian towns.
Karadzic "was the sole person ... with the power to intervene to prevent" the slaughter of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys who were rounded up after his forces captured Srebrenica, the judge said Thursday. Karadzic's intention was that "every able-bodied Bosnian Muslim man from Srebrenica be killed," according to a statement released by the court.
The list of crimes for which Karadzic was guilty included persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, terror and hostage-taking.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The court found that Karadzic was the chief architect of what became known as ethnic cleansing. He took part in establishing and carrying out a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>campaign of sniping and shelling civilian populations to spread terror, the court found.
"Sarajevo civilians were sniped while fetching water, walking in the city and when using public transport," Kwon said. "Children were sniped at while playing in front of their houses, walking with their parents or walking home from school."
The former leader was also responsible for a scheme to detain U.N. personnel in the spring of 1995 to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>coerce NATO forces not to engage in airstrikes.
The courtroom in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The Hague in the Netherlands was packed with families of victims and Karadzic hardly glanced at them during the sentencing, according to the Guardian. The newspaper said Karadzic appeared nervous with his arms stiff at his sides when the sentence was handed down. His lawyer promised an appeal would be filed.
The former psychologist and poet was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the most senior Bosnian Serb leader to face trial for atrocities that occurred during the 1992-1995 war.
To the end, Karadzic insisted he was innocent and only intending to protect Serbs. His was among the most famous war trials since the Nuremberg trials of former Nazi leaders after World War II.
The trial started<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Oct. 26, 2009 and lasted 498 days. Karadzic has been in custody since July 21, 2008.
The genocide in Bosnia ultimately led the Clinton administration to push for the Dayton peace accords of 1995. The Associated Press characterized the Karadzic trial as one of the last cases for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal that was set up in 1983 and indicted 161 suspects, 80 of whom were convicted and sentenced. Eighteen more were acquitted, 13 were sent to local courts and indictments were withdrawn for 36 others, AP reported.
Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, 64,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>died in his prison cell in 2006 before verdicts could be delivered in a case where he was accused of orchestrating a decade of conflict in the region that left 250,000 dead.
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