THE HAGUE, Netherlands, June 28 (UPI) -- A U.N. tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday rejected former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's motion for acquittal on war crimes charges.
Karadzic faces 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for allegedly ordering the killing of Bosnian Muslim men and boys during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.
Prosecutors said Karadzic is responsible for the deaths of more than 7,000 people in Srebrenica in 1995, the shooting at and sniping against civilians in Sarajevo, and the taking United Nations staff hostage.
Karadzic, who has been defending himself, attempted to have all 11 charges dropped, claiming he did not know what was happening on the ground, the BBC reported.
The tribunal, however, rejected his request, saying the "genocidal intent" of the accused "may be inferred" from all the evidence, although the judges did drop one genocide charge, ruling prosecutors had failed to provide enough evidence.
The trial is set to continue in October. Karadzic has denied all charges against him.
In a separate trial, Serb Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj was sentenced to two years in prison for contempt after failing to remove confidential information from his Web site about a number of protected witnesses who testified at his war crimes trial, a U.N. statement said Wednesday. It was the third time he was tried for disclosing details about protected witnesses since 2010, and his third conviction.
