Radovan Karadžić, the former Bosnian Serb leader convicted of genocide in the Srebrenica massacre, will serve the rest of his sentence in a British prison, the Foreign Office confirmed.
Karadžić, 75, was found guilty in 2016 of 10 of the 11 charges he faced over his role in the mass killings of civilians in 1995.
His original 40-year sentence imposed at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was increased to life at an appeal hearing in 2019.
Karadžić had initially objected to the transfer, citing the former Serbian general Radislav Krstić who had his throat cut by Islamic Extremists at Wakefield Prison. (He was later awarded £50,000 compensation.)
But the Foreign Office said an agreement had been reached to transfer Karadžić from a UN detention unit in the Netherlands. The Ministry of Justice said it will not reveal the location of the prison for security reasons.
Karadžić is one of 90 people sentenced at the ICTY for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Officials said all suspects have been apprehended. Some are still in prison while many have served their sentences and have been released. Others died before, during and after their trials.
Slobodan Praljak
The Bosnian Croat former general poisoned himself in court in 2017 after losing an appeal against his 20-year sentence for crimes during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He stood alongside six defendants, who also lost their appeals, and drank from a small bottle that he said contained poison.
Lawyers at the ICTY, in the Netherlands, were stunned and rose from their seats to raise the alarm.
Praljak died from heart failure at a nearby hospital. Toxicology results showed “a concentration of potassium cyanide” in his blood.
Goran Jelisić
The self-proclaimed “Serb Adolf Hitler” was found guilty of committing crimes against humanity and violating the customs of war at the ICTY.
Jelisić was a senior guard at the Luka detention camp in the Bosnian town of Brcko, where hundreds of Bosniaks and Croats were held prisoner.
At his 1998 trial, he admitted a series of murders and inhumane acts in Brcko. The court heard of the former police officer’s desire to “kill Muslims” during the Bosnian war.
The 52-year-old has been serving his 40-year sentence in Italy since 2003. Earlier this year, judges rejected his appeal for early release.
Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović
A verdict is imminent in the retrial of Stanišić, the former head of Serbian State Security, and Simatović, his former deputy.
The defendants are accused of participating in a joint enterprise to permanently remove non-Serbs from large parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1995.
The pair are accused of establishing, controlling, financing and deploying paramilitary units that committed crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Stanišić and Simatović have pleaded not guilty to the charges in the retrial, which was held after the original verdict acquitting both of them was overturned in December 2015.
Ratko Mladić
Dubbed “The Butcher of Bosnia” the former army general was jailed for life for directing 180,000 troops in some of the most shocking atrocities in post-war Europe.
Mladić and his men were responsible for a brutal three-year occupation of Sarajevo that claimed 10,000 lives, and the massacre at Srebrenica – where more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were slaughtered and dumped in mass graves.
Following the end of the bloody conflict in 1995, Mladić went on the run. Police eventually captured him in May 2011, hiding in village in Belgrade. He was later extradited to The Hague.
In November 2017 – after a three-year trial – Mladić was found guilty of 10 of the 11 charges related to committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the ICTY.
Mladić has appealed his conviction and UN judges are expected to give their verdict on 8 June.
