Amsterdam - The trial against former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will continue despite claims by the defendant he was promised immunity, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled on Wednesday. Karadzic, who was arrested in July 2008 by the Serb authorities and subsequently transferred to the UN-sponsored court in The Hague, claims he was promised immunity by the former UN and US Special Envoy to the Balkans, Richard Holbrooke.
In exchange for immunity, Karadzic allegedly agreed to remain out of the public eye after the end of the Balkan War.
The US and Holbrooke, who is now the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, have denied such a deal ever existed.
Karadzic 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.
The proceedings are merely preparatory. The actual trial is not due to start for several months.
