Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic found 'criminally responsible' in genocide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, March 24 (UPI) -- A U.N. tribunal on Thursday found former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic "criminally responsible" for genocide in the Bosnian war.

Karadzic, 70, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after the United Nation's International Criminal Tribunal found him guilty. He served as the commander in chief of Serb forces during the war, which ran from 1992 to 1995.

An estimated 100,000 people were killed, including those in a siege in Sarajevo and about 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the town of Srebrenica.

Karadzic defended himself during the nearly 500-day trial and called about 300 witnesses. Just before the court's decision was ready, he said he would be acquitted because "there is no reasonable court that would convict me."

Karadzic has been in the court's custody since 2008 after vanishing from public eye in 1996. He was captured in 2008 posing as a new age healer named Dr. Dragan Dabic. He is the most senior of the political figures to face judgement over the genocide.