Picture: (AFP/Pool/Jerry Lampen)- Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is pictured in the courtroom of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Karadzic says the United States wanted him dead and accused it of reneging on a deal to shield him from trial by the UN war crimes court.

Radovan Karadzic’s lawyer says he was seeking the return from Serbian authorities of a seized laptop containing files needed for his defense before the UN war crimes tribunal.

The lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, told AFP "We have a big problem … as long as those who arrested him don’t return the laptop and the 50 CDs containing the entire defence of Radovan Karadzic had prepared for 10 years".

The Belgrade-based lawyer ruled out traveling to the UN court in The Hague in the near future and says"the total strategy" of Karadzic’s defense had already been "agreed" with his client.

Radovan Karadzic does not know if he will be able to appear on August 29", his next scheduled hearing, because of the missing laptop.

The lawyer revived an accusation that Karadzic had been "kidnapped" by an unknown group on July 18, when his laptop was taken, and not three days later as stated by Serbian authorities.

Karadzic himself made the claim in his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday, when he refused to enter a plea.

MRN-AP

 

 

 

MRN