Karadzic today filed a motion seeking the disclosure of information necessary for the preparation of his defense. As he notes in his motion, his defense will rely on Holbrooke’s promise of immunity and the fact that the promise can be ‘attributable to the ICTY’ since it was given on behalf of the UN Security Council members or in consultation with them


Radovan Karadzic wants the Trial Chamber to grant him permission to inspect the prosecution archives, in search of the information necessary for a motion in which he will demand that the charges against him be dropped. As Karadzic contends, in July 1996 Richard Holbrooke promised him immunity.

Karadzic demands the disclosure of all information available to the prosecution about the agreement made with Holbrooke; he also wants to see all the demands to the prosecution to drop the charges against him after the alleged agreement was concluded. Karadzic also wants to obtain all the information the prosecution has about the reasons why every attempt for his arrest after July 1996 ended in failure. Furthermore, he wants to be given all the information about the ‘negotiations in BH from 1995 to 1997’ between the US and the UN and its bodies, such as the Security Council, General Assembly, the Tribunal in The Hague, IFOR, SFOR and UNPROFOR. Finally, Karadzic wants for all the information about the negotiations between the US and the so-called Contact Group countries.

As he indicates in his motion, Karadzic needs all the information to prepare his defense, which will be based primarily on Holbrooke’s promise of immunity and Karadzic’s interpretation of this promise. According to Karadzic, this promise can be ‘attributable to the ICTY’ since it was given ‘on behalf of the UN Security Council members or in consultation with them’.

Karadzic invokes the appropriate rules in the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the ample jurisprudence of the Appeals Chambers of the Rwanda and Yugoslav Tribunals as legal grounds for his request.

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