A UN court today denied Radovan Karadzic's motion to have war crimes charges against him dropped, arguing that an immunity deal promised to the former Bosnian Serb leader was irrelevant to his trial.
In May, Karadzic filed a motion arguing that charges against him relating to the 1992-1995 Bosnia war should be dropped because former US peace mediator Richard Holbrooke offered him immunity in 1996 if he disappeared from public life.
"The chamber is of the view that the accused has failed to establish his abuse of process claim," the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said in its 30-page ruling.
Mr Holbrooke has repeatedly denied the existence of any deal, describing Karadzic's claim as "no more than another lie from the most evil man in Europe".
Peter Robinson, Karadzic's legal adviser, said his client would appeal the decision. Karadzic is representing himself. "We're disappointed that they refused to hold an evidentiary hearing," Mr Robinson said. When filing the motion in May, Mr Robinson had argued there was enough evidence to justify a hearing.
Mr Karadzic was arrested and brought to the tribunal in The Hague last year after 11 years on the run. He faces two charges of genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.
The tribunal, which had already indicated that any immunity agreement would not give Karadzic immunity from prosecution, ruled that Karadzic's motion had failed to show Mr Holbrooke had acted on the authority of the United Nations Security Council.
The ruling by Judge Iain Bonomy also said that Karadzic had "failed to show that any abuse of process has taken place".
Karadzic had previously refused to enter a plea during pre-trial proceedings, but a in a pre-trial brief lodged with the court last week, said he was not guilty of all charges. Karadzic would face life in prison if convicted of the 11 charges against him, which include genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The court said despite today's decision, Karadzic should proceed with plans to meet with Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt, who Mr Karadzic says helped broker the immunity agreement.
Mr Bildt has denied any knowledge of such a deal but has agreed to a meeting. The court said any "information obtained therein may be relevant to any eventual appeal and any eventual sentence". Last week, Karadzic told the tribunal that Mr Bildt had agreed to meet his lawyers.
Reuters