On 18 February 2009, Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) filed an amended indictment against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić after Trial Chamber III gave leave to most of the amendments proposed to the 2000 indictment against him. The Prosecution submits that with the latest indictment it has "updated, clarified, and further particularized its legal and factual allegations relating to the Accused’s individual responsibility.''

The Second Amended Indictment is intended to simplify the charges against Radovan Karadžić, allowing for a shorter and more efficient trial. The Prosecution has restructured the counts from the previous indictment of 28 April 2000 and has modified the criminal conduct to which the indictment refers.

Under the amended indictment, Radovan Karadžić is now charged with two counts of Genocide rather than one, after the Prosecution removed one charge of complicity in Genocide and split the single count of Genocide into two. The Genocide counts now correspond to two separate time periods: the first relating to crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 and the second to the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica. Radovan Karadžić, former President of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska and commander of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) during the war in Bosnia, remains charged with eleven counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Srebrenica

Under the Second Amended Indictment, the prosecution maintains that Radovan Karadžić bears responsibility for acts committed in three principle “crime bases”: (1) a collection of municipalities located within territory claimed by the Bosnian Serbs; (2) the Sarajevo area; and (3) Srebrenica. In narrowing the scope of his criminal conduct however, the newly-granted amendments reduce the number of municipalities from 41 to 27.

The amendments made by the Prosecution to other counts in the indictment reflect developments from the ICTY in its jurisprudence concerning co-perpetration. The charge that Karadžić acted “in concert” with others indicted by the Tribunal has been modified to clarify that he is instead liable for participation in a joint criminal enterprise (JCE).

A further count of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions has been removed from the indictment, though in its decision to only partially grant the prosecution’s motion, Trial Chamber III refused leave to amend the indictment through the addition of three alleged incidents of killing to Counts 3, 4, 5 and 6. The Chamber asserted that these allegations were not adequately supported by evidence.

Radovan Karadžić is expected to enter a plea to the amended indictment when he appears before judges in Trial Chamber III on 20 February 2009.

Radovan Karadžić

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia