Radovan Karadzic: Genocide count dropped

GlobalPost

Judges in The Hague acquitted Radovan Karadzic of one count of genocide on Thursday, but the Bosnian Serb leader still faces numerous other war crime and genocide charges.

Karadzic, 67, will now face one count of genocide for the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, and nine other charges related to ethnic violence during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, reported CNN. Judges in The Hague heard evidence that Karadzic's forces systematically discriminated against Bosnian Muslims and Croats, but deemed the level of abuse for the one charge did not amount to genocide.

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The judges made the decision at the halfway point of Karadzic's long-running trial and still upheld charges including murder and persecution, according to the Associated Press. They said prosecutors did not prove there was intent to wipe out a specific group of people, in whole or in part.

The 67-year-old, who has been defending himself, denied the charges and claimed he did not know what was taking place on the ground, reported BBC News.

Karadzic was the leader of the Bosnian Serb government during the war that raged in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 after Yugoslavia's breakup, according to MSNBC. He was indicted for war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1995 and was only brought to The Hague 13 years later.

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