The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal prosecutor wants former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic jailed for life for masterminding some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II, including the Srebrenica massacre.
"Life imprisonment is the only appropriate sentence," the prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said in a document published Friday, three days before closing arguments begin in the long-running case.
"Under his command and oversight, Karadzic's subordinates and those cooperating with them expelled, killed, tortured and otherwise mistreated hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats," said the prosecutor's final trial brief.
"The scale and scope of these criminal campaigns is vast."
Karadzic, 69, is facing 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Bosnian war in the 1990s that claimed more than 100,000 lives and left 2.2 million others homeless.
Prosecutors say Karadzic, late Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic acted together to "cleanse" Bosnian Muslims and Croats from Bosnia's Serb-claimed territories after the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Karadzic is notably accused of masterminding the July 1995 massacre in the small eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb troops slaughtered almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys and dumped their bodies into mass graves.
Apart from genocide, Karadzic is also facing charges over the 44-month siege of Bosnia's capital Sarajevo, which ended in November 1995 with some 10,000 people killed.
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal prosecutor wants former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic jailed for life for masterminding some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II, including the Srebrenica massacre.
“Life imprisonment is the only appropriate sentence,” the prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said in a document published Friday, three days before closing arguments begin in the long-running case.
“Under his command and oversight, Karadzic’s subordinates and those cooperating with them expelled, killed, tortured and otherwise mistreated hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats,” said the prosecutor’s final trial brief.
“The scale and scope of these criminal campaigns is vast.”
Karadzic, 69, is facing 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Bosnian war in the 1990s that claimed more than 100,000 lives and left 2.2 million others homeless.
Prosecutors say Karadzic, late Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic acted together to “cleanse” Bosnian Muslims and Croats from Bosnia’s Serb-claimed territories after the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Karadzic is notably accused of masterminding the July 1995 massacre in the small eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb troops slaughtered almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys and dumped their bodies into mass graves.
Apart from genocide, Karadzic is also facing charges over the 44-month siege of Bosnia’s capital Sarajevo, which ended in November 1995 with some 10,000 people killed.
