Defense team claims: Karadžić defended Serbia and Republika Srpska

The defense team of Radovan Karadžić, after analyzing the verdict of the Hague Tribunal, concluded that "Karadžić defended RS and Serbia", reports the Patria News Agency.

According to lawyer Goran Petronijević, by abandoning the charge of genocide in seven municipalities in BiH and retaining the qualification of "genocide" for Srebrenica, the court has refuted the thesis of Bosniak politicians that Republika Srpska is a genocidal creation.

"In the reasoning of the verdict, the Tribunal also characterized the war in BiH as a civil war between three peoples in BiH, which definitively removes responsibility from Serbia for any potential involvement," added Petronijević.

The Tribunal, as Petronijević points out, has also abandoned the definition of genocide in Srebrenica it previously held, without mentioning the figures of 7,000 to 8,000 killed.

"Since the convicted 5,115 allegedly killed Muslims do not constitute a third of the reproductively capable men in the enclave (as they have defined the act of genocide so far), it is clear that this Hague myth has been completely undermined. We will prove that by counting, according to the prosecution's standards in previous trials, we can speak of 3,200 dead in the entire operation, and a huge number of those were killed in military operations," says Petronijević.

The Belgrade lawyer also points out that the court's strongest evidence for the existence of genocide in Srebrenica is an alleged phone conversation from the trial of Vujadin Popović, in which an order is given to kill all captured Muslims, and reminds that the then Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) allowed a column of the 28th Division, consisting of several thousand soldiers and civilians, to pass on July 15 and 16 in the Zvornik area.

"This happened after the conversation the court refers to in passing the verdict against Karadžić for genocide in Srebrenica. In qualifying genocide in Srebrenica in the verdict against Karadžić, The Hague has contradicted itself," concludes Petronijević.

Karadžić's legal advisor also announces that the defense will "strongly attack the genocide in Srebrenica" and Karadžić's participation in it in the appeal, given that the court relied on a non-existent conversation between Miroslav Deronjić (the envoy he sent to this town) and him. The conversation did not happen, and the defense plans to introduce forensic expert testimony on the alleged intercepted conversations.

According to Peter Robinson, the defense will appeal all 10 convictions on which the court based Karadžić's 40-year sentence.

"The initial impressions are that the former president of RS is deeply disappointed with the reasoning in the verdict and that the Trial Chamber could not have reached a decision to sentence him to 40 years in prison based on the evidence presented," said Robinson.

As this former American district attorney states, the defense is seriously reading the verdict and looking for weaknesses and inconsistencies, and the main weaknesses have already been identified, writes Večernje novosti.