Life imprisonment is the only justice for them: Mothers of Srebrenica traveled to The Hague

SARAJevo, (Patria) - Representatives of the Association "Mothers of Srebrenica" traveled this morning from Sarajevo Airport to The Hague for the sentencing of Radovan Karadžić, which will be delivered on Wednesday.

The victims expect "life imprisonment for the Balkan butcher", as they call the former president of Republika Srpska, one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (IRMCT) has scheduled the delivery of the second-instance judgment against Radovan Karadžić for March 20 this year.

The Hague Tribunal had provisionally sentenced the former president of Republika Srpska to 40 years in prison, finding him guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout BiH, terrorizing the population of Sarajevo through prolonged shelling and sniping, and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

Karadžić appealed this sentence, but so did the Hague Prosecution, which sought his conviction for genocide in seven other municipalities (Bratunac, Foča, Ključ, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica, and Zvornik) and a life sentence.

It was planned for the Mechanism, the legal successor to the Hague Tribunal, to deliver the final verdict against Karadžić in December, but this was postponed because Judge Theodor Meron, at the request of the Defense, withdrew from the Appeals Chamber, and Judge Ivo Rosa was appointed in his place.

The first indictment against Karadžić was confirmed in July 1995. He was arrested in Serbia in July 2008, and his trial began in October 2009.