Bosnian Serb War Criminal Asks UN Court for Early Release

Radoslav Brdjanin, the wartime political leader of the short-lived Autonomous Region of Krajina in northern Bosnia, who is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes against humanity, has again asked the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague to grant him early release.

His previous request was rejected in March 2020 because of the seriousness of his offences and because the court said that he had "failed to demonstrate that he has been sufficiently rehabilitated".

The new request filed by his lawyer Novak Lukic insisted that Brdjanin is "mindful of the high gravity of crimes he was convicted of".

It added that Brdjanin has "clearly stated [in his first request for early release] that the crimes for which he has been sentenced must not be relativised".

"The most dangerous theory, so to say, justifying crimes is when someone says, 'Look at what they did to us.' I cannot and will not accept this philosophy, because crimes cannot and must not be justified by other crimes," the request quoted Brdjanin as saying.

It also noted that two years have passed since his previous request for early release, and that due to travel restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus pandemic in Denmark, where he is serving his sentence, he has not been visited by his family for a prolonged period of time.

Brdjanin, who is now 73, has been in prison in Denmark since March 2008. He became eligible for potential early release in July 2019 after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

He was convicted by the Hague Tribunal in 2007 of crimes including persecution, torture, deportations and the forcible relocation of the non-Serb population in Bosnia and Herzegovina and particularly in the Autonomous Region of Krajina in 1992.