Karadzic asks for contact with journalist

Radovan Karadzic has called on the president of the Hague Tribunal to reverse decision to deny him contact with an Austrian journalist.

Karadzic filed a motion on August 17 claiming the registrar of the Internationa Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in The Hague had denied him contact with Robert Treichler, a journalist for the Austrian newspaper Profile.

According to Karadzic, who is allowed restricted contact with the media, the registrar refused to forward his written answers to the journalist because of his criticisms of the prosecution.

Karadzic, who is accused of crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the first and only detainee from the ICTY who has been in contact with journalists.

Although not allowed to have direct contact, he can answer questions in written form, with the approval of the Tribunal’s Registry.

In his motion, Karadzic said he had answered questions from Profile in May, but his answers were not sent to the journalist.

On August 13, the deputy registrar, according to the motion, informed Karadzic that his communication with the media was denied as his proposed answers “unfairly and incorrectly” reflected on the work of the Office of the Prosecution.

He called the Registry decision “unreasonable” and said he had been “censored” over a question asking him why he had been in hiding for so many years before his arrest.

He asked the President to reverse the Registry decision and forward his full answers to the journalist.

A decision is pending.

Karadzic was arrested in July 2008 while he was living under a false identity in Belgrade.