Radovan Karadzic, the genocidal ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, to be transferred to British prison

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Gareth Davies
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Radovan Karadzic - Peter Dejong/AFP
Radovan Karadzic - Peter Dejong/AFP

The UK has agreed Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic should be transferred to a British prison to serve the rest of his sentence for his role in the Srebrenica genocide, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.

Following the announcement, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK should “take pride” in its role in pursuing justice over Radovan Karadzic’s “heinous crimes”.

He said: “Radovan Karadzic is one of the few people to have been found guilty of genocide.

“He was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians.

“We should take pride in the fact that, from UK support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30 year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes.”

Karadzic, 75, was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2016 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The UK was a signatory to the ICTY, a United Nations court of law that dealt with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. The ad hoc court located at the Hague in the Netherlands, the site of the International Criminal Court.

Karadzic – who became known as “The Butcher of Bosnia” – was sentenced to life imprisonment and has been jailed in the Hague since.

In 2010 the ICTY was superseded by a new body created to deal with the remaining functions of the tribunal. It is the latter body that has asked the UK to accept the transfer of Karadzic, it is understood.

A Whitehall source told The Telegraph: “This was the deal at the Hague - they would conduct the trials, but they wouldn’t hold the prisoners. That’s how Charles Taylor [the former Liberian president and convicted war criminal] ended up here as well… It’s not going to be a minimum security prison.”

It has also emerged that Mr Raab was a legal adviser in Britain’s embassy in the Hague between 2003 and 2006, and led on legal and war crimes work. He negotiated the 2004 deal on enforcing sentences that is being used to transfer Karadzic to the UK.

The Bosnian Serb war criminal is the fifth prisoner to be transferred to the UK under arrangements with the Hague, it is understood.

More to follow.

Recommended Stories

  • Idea of facing Kansas City Chiefs in opener brings back bad memories for Browns fans

    Threes names are on the lips of Cleveland supporters.

  • Trump’s acting attorney general refuses to say if he discussed overturning election results

    Donald Trump’s acting attorney general has refused to answer whether he discussed with the former president efforts to overturn or reject election results in the lead up to 6 January. Jeffrey Rosen told members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday that he met with the former president on 3 January but said only that their conversation did “not relate to planning and preparations for the events of 6 January.” In a heated round of questions, Democratic US Rep Gerry Connolly pressed Mr Rosen to answer whether those conversations involved rejecting election results.

  • U.S., UK, Germany clash with China at U.N. over Xinjiang

    NEW YORK (Reuters) -The United States, Germany and Britain clashed with China at the United Nations on Wednesday over the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, angering Beijing by hosting a virtual event that China had lobbied U.N. member states to stay away from. "We will keep standing up and speaking out until China's government stops its crimes against humanity and the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the event, which organizers said was attended by about 50 countries.

  • Liz Cheney vows to never let Trump near Oval Office again as she’s removed from GOP leadership

    Liz Cheney has been ousted from her position in the House Republican Party leadership. The party removed Ms Cheney from her post as conference chairwoman by a voice vote because of her opposition to Donald Trump’s election lies. The motion to remove the Wyoming representative was put forward by Virginia Foxx and supported by GOP leader Kevin McCarthy.

  • ‘A bitter horrible human being’: Trump slams Liz Cheney in gloating statement as she loses leadership role

    Donald Trump gloated over the ousting of House Republican conference chair Liz Cheney in a statement released shortly after a voice vote by party members removed her from the position. Bringing in her father, former vice president Dick Cheney, Mr Trump continues: “She is a warmonger whose family stupidly pushed us into the never-ending Middle East Disaster, draining our wealth and depleting our great military, the worst decision in our country’s history.” Ms Cheney was removed from her post by her fellow party members for refusing to buy into Mr Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

  • Bill Gates is reportedly hiding out in his mansion at a billionaires' golf club in California that costs $250,000 to join

    Bill Gates has been at his $12.5 million mansion at The Vintage Club for about three months, a source told Page Six. Membership costs $250,000.

  • More than 120 retired generals and admirals wrote to Biden suggesting he wasn't legitimately elected and questioning his mental health

    The letter published by "Flag Officers 4 America" appeared to advance a false conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was illegitimate.

  • Rep. Liz Cheney makes last stand on House floor

    She blasted former President Donald Trump ahead of Wednesday's vote in which she’s expected to lose her leadership post for calling out Trump's false election claims. ABC News’ Alex Presha reports.

  • Swing-voter focus group says ousting Liz Cheney is a mistake

    As House Republicans meet to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post for criticizing Donald Trump, swing voters in Axios' latest Engagious/Schlesinger focus groups hold a near-unanimous view that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his caucus are making a mistake.The big picture: Nine of 14 voters said they could vote for a Republican for U.S. House or Senate races next year. All but one ruled out backing any candidate who clings to the former president's lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free13 of the 14 said Cheney (R-Wyo.) should not be removed and that it would be a mistake for House Republicans to go through with their plans.These were the biggest takeaways from two back-to-back focus groups conducted Tuesday night, on the eve of an expected vote to purge Cheney from her No. 3 spot in the House GOP leadership. The two seven-member panels included women and men, from a mix of the most competitive swing states, who voted for Trump in 2016 but President Biden in 2020.While focus groups are not statistically significant samples like polls, the responses show how some voters in crucial states are thinking about issues that could shape next year's midterm elections.What they're saying: These voters said they're turned off by House Republicans' perceived fealty to Trump and the idea that there's no tolerance for dissent or critical or independent thinking."It seems like you need to conform to be a leader in the Republican Party," said Rosie F., 53, of Pennsylvania. "They're followers," said Jimmy S., 41, from Maricopa County, Arizona. "It's all about trying to please one person."Engagious president Rich Thau, who moderated the focus groups, said swing voters themselves tend to be non-conformists so "when they see a political party punishing a person like them, it rubs them the wrong way."Between the lines: This remains largely an inside-the-Beltway drama. Just six of the 14 voters initially knew of Cheney by name, and only five knew she holds a leadership post. Only after details of the controversy and her public statements were outlined did most say that her expected removal would be wrong.Of note: While a couple of voters said they thought Cheney should run for president in 2024, none believed that she would stand a chance of winning the GOP's nomination.Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • Number of children traveling alone at border eases in April

    The number of unaccompanied children encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults were found coming without families, authorities said Tuesday. Authorities encountered 17,171 children traveling alone, down 9% from 18,960 in March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but still well above the previous high of 11,475 reported in May 2019 by the Border Patrol, which began publishing numbers in 2009. Overall, the Border Patrol’s 173,460 encounters with migrants on the Mexican border in April were up 3% from 169,213 in March, the highest level since April 2000.

  • Israel strikes kill senior Hamas commander, Palestinians fire rockets

    GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas armed wing in Gaza in a barrage on Wednesday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as Washington said it would send an envoy to try to calm their most intense hostilities in years. At least 56 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said.

  • Court rules woman must choose between her biracial child or her Confederate flag symbol

    Judge says ‘presence of the flag is not in the child’s best interests’

  • Tennessee soldiers ran illegal gun pipeline tied to Chicago mass shooting, feds say

    “They want a lot of guns,” one soldier reportedly said in a text message to his roommate.

  • NeNe Leakes, ‘RHOA’ castmembers respond to Porsha Williams’ engagement to co-star’s ex

    The fallout of the latest Real Housewives of Atlanta scandal continues. Nene Leakes and more celebs have responded to Porsha Williams‘ recent social media announcement that she is engaged to her co-star’s ex. As theGrio previously reported, shockwaves were sent throughout The Real Housewives world Monday night when Porsha Williams confirmed on her Instagram account that she is with Simon Guobadia, who was previously married to her RHOA co-star Falynn Guobadia.

  • Chrissy Teigen is accused of bullying a 16-year-old TV personality and telling them 'I can't wait for you to die'

    Courtney Stodden, who was at the center of celebrity gossip circles in the 2010s, revisited the incident of online harassment in a new interview.

  • Josh Hawley's former academic mentor says he blames himself for helping the senator rise to power

    "I had no inkling really just how conservative he was. I blame myself," Stanford historian David Kennedy told The Washington Post.

  • Scaly hitchhiker sneaks in SC woman’s truck hood. Watch it slither out during commute

    “I knew nobody was going to believe that had happened.”

  • Two Teenagers who beat and killed a 13-year-old boy sent home to parents on probation

    The judge said they were ‘directly responsible’ for the death, even though they did not intend to kill him

  • McDonald’s worker shoots customer after dispute over change, Arkansas cops say

    The incident is under investigation, police say.

  • Whitmer threatens profit seizure if pipeline keeps operating

    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer threatened Tuesday to go after Enbridge's profits from a Great Lakes oil pipeline if the company defies her order to shut it down. The Democratic governor issued the warning in a letter to the Canadian energy transport company on the eve of a state-imposed deadline to halt operation of Line 5, which moves oil through northern Wisconsin and Michigan to refineries in Ontario. Enbridge repeated its intention to defy Whitmer's demand.