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Karadzic's Lawyer Predicts His Client Will Prevail at War Crimes Tribunal


A lawyer for jailed war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic says the former Bosnian Serb leader believes he will be cleared of genocide charges.

Svetozar Vujacic said Karadzic will conduct his own defense at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague. He said Karadzic is convinced that with God's help he will prevail.

Vujacic says Karadzic has shaved off the thick white beard and cut the long gray hair he grew to disguise himself during more than a decade as a fugitive.

Serbian security officials arrested Karadzic Monday in Belgrade. He had lived openly in the Serbian capital, practicing alternative medicine under the name Dragan Dabic.

Officials say they tracked him down trailing people thought to be helping him avoid capture.

The Hague tribunal has charged Karadzic with genocide and crimes against humanity for his efforts to ethnically-cleanse Bosnia of Muslims and Croats during the war of the 1990s.

The charges include the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of about eight thousand Muslim men and boys. He is also charged with the siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during which snipers, shellfire, disease and starvation killed thousands.

With Karadzic's arrest, the Balkan war-crimes tribunal's top fugitive targets now are former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, and ex-Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic. Former Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin was arrested last month in Serbia.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.



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