Karadzic attorney claims to have evidence of immunity offer from US

May 20, 2009, 9:53 GMT

Amsterdam - An attorney for former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has announced that he is prepared to offer evidence that the United States in 1996 promised his client immunity from prosecution stemming from atrocities during that decade's Balkan wars.

Karadzic's legal advisor, Peter Robinson, on Wednesday said he would transfer the evidence to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague on Monday.

Karadzic was arrested in Serbia in July 2008 and is currently standing trial at the ICTY on charges of war crimes relating to the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Beforehand, Robinson is scheduled to give a press conference at the ICTY premises. Robinson says he has received evidence from a US source showing that, in 1996, then US special envoy to the Balkans, Richard Holbrooke, promised his client immunity from prosecution.

Karadzic has repeatedly referred to a deal with Holbrooke and claimed that he is, thus, safe from prosecution by the ICTY.

Holbrooke, who is now the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has always denied such a deal ever existed.

The ICTY, which declined to comment on the upcoming press conference, says the existence of an agreement on Karadzic's immunity is 'irrelevant' to its ongoing case.