The spokesperson for the European External Action Service called Wednesday 20 March for the region's leaders to respect Radovan Karadžić’s life sentence upheld by the Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) earlier in the day.
The former political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, now 73 years old, was sentenced in the first instance jurisdiction in 2016 to 40 years in prison for genocide in Srebrenica, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“The EU expects all leaders in the region to support the decisions of the international tribunals and to refrain from any statements or actions casting doubt on the independence or the impartiality of the adjudication process", the spokesperson warned in a statement. “Denial or revisionism contradict the most fundamental European values”, they added.
The spokesperson recalled that the EU fully respected the decisions of the IRMCT and its predecessor, the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. “We reiterate the need for full cooperation with the IRMCT”, they said, adding that the EU supports the "effective and efficient domestic processing of war crimes at the national level, to complement and follow up the work of international tribunals”.
International criminal justice not only contributes to ending impunity but also to fostering broader trust and reconciliation in the Western Balkans region, the spokesperson said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)