'Karadzic was unaware of Srebrenica massacre'

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic "did not know" of the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims at Srebrenica, his lawyer said yesterday, seeking an acquittal in his genocide trial.
"There is not a single piece of evidence that Dr Karadzic planned or ordered the execution of prisoners (at Srebrenica), or that he knew about it," his legal advisor Peter Robinson told the Hague-based UN Yugoslav war crimes court.
"In fact they (events) were concealed from him and therefore he is not guilty of genocide," Robinson said in the second and final day of closing arguments before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Once one of Europe's most wanted men, Karadzic, 69, denies charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1990s Balkan conflict.
Karadzic is accused of being one of the masterminds of ethnic cleansing during Bosnia's brutal civil war that claimed more than 100,000 lives and uprooted 2.2 million others.
The president of the former self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb republic faces a total of 11 charges, most notably that of genocide for his alleged role in the Srebrenica massacre.
Almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and their bodies dumped in mass graves after Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN-protected enclave in eastern Bosnia in July 1995. The slaughter is deemed one of the bloodiest crimes committed on European soil since World War II.
A final verdict in the marathon five-year trial is not expected before late 2015.
"If Dr Karadzic was truly guilty of the Srebrenica killings you would have heard something more than what the prosecution has presented in five years of trial," Robinson told a four-judge bench.
"Not a single witness has testified that Radovan Karadzic planned, ordered, was even informed of the execution of prisoners from Srebrenica," he said.
On Wednesday, he told judges he was a "true friend" to Bosnia's Muslims. Although he has taken "moral responsibility" for the atrocities committed by Bosnian Serbs during the war, Karadzic denies the criminal charges.
Despite still claiming his innocence, Karadzic also apologised to victims of the crimes, accepting responsibility as the serving president at the time.
Prosecutors wrapped up their arguments on Tuesday saying life behind bars "would be the only appropriate sentence".