- Radovan Karadzic, 79, is after £50,000 for human rights breaches
A jailed war criminal known as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ is suing the UK government for inhumane treatment as he is not allowed a laptop in his cell.
Radovan Karadzic, 79, who is in Albany prison on the Isle of Wight, is after £50,000 for human rights breaches, and is also claiming that he has been banned from communicating in his native Serbian.
He appeared in court via video link last week to sue Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood.
If he wins, taxpayers would have to pay his bill, as well as other legal costs.
This comes after his daughter Sonja Karadzic-Jovicevic claimed in 2021 that he was being held in ‘unhealthy’ and ‘uncivilised’ conditions after he was moved to the Isle of Wight.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic (R) and his general Ratko Mladic on Mountain Vlasic, April 1995. Karadzic, 79, who is in Albany prison on the Isle of Wight, is suing the UK government for human rights abuses

Karadzic is behind some of the most atrocious war crimes since World War II. Pictured: Bosnian Muslim women and survivors of the Srebrenica massacre hold posters with photos of missing men after the Srebrenica fall, during a peaceful protest in Tuzla, 70 kms (43 miles) north of Sarajevo, Tuesday, April 11, 2006

A sign at the main entrance to the Albany site of HMP Isle of Wight on Parkhurst Road, Newport, Isle of Wight, where Karadzic is serving a life sentence
She had told Bosnian news agency SRNA: ‘As for the physical condition in which he is accommodated, it is unacceptable.
‘If we add to that the fact that he is in a building full of carcinogenic asbestos that is banned around the world, it is clear in what condition he will be in.’
She also claimed that moving the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ to Britain was done deliberately to spite her family.
She said: ‘My father is in a very uncivilised situation, and as far as his family is concerned, his relocation to the south of England was deliberately made to keep him far away, outside the rules of the United Nations Resolution adopted by the Security Council.
‘It will be very difficult for us physically, financially and procedurally, because of visas, and immunisation during the pandemic, and even after that, to ever go there and visit him.’
She also claimed he had his books and computer taken off him and was no longer able to speak his language and live his culture.
The former Bosnian Serb leader was convicted in 2019 of genocide against Croats and Muslims during the Balkans War.

Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb wartime leader (second right), and his general Ratko Mladic (first left) walk accompanied by bodyguards on Mount Vlasic frontline in Serbia. FILE – In this April 15, 1995

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic makes an initial appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on July 31, 2008 in The Hague, The Netherlands

A Bosnian Muslim woman cries between graves of her father, two grandfathers and other close relatives, all victims of Srebrenica genocide, July 10, 2020, at the cemetery in Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Hercegovina. More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed after the Bosnian Serb Army attacked Srebrenica, a designated UN safe area, on 10-11 July 1995, despite the presence of UN peacekeepers

Bosnian Muslim women pray as relatives of victims of Srebrenica genocide visit sites of 1995 mass execution of their loved ones, on July 13, 2020 in Brnjevo near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Hercegovina

Bosnian Muslims celebrate in Sarajevo after the announcement by the Serbian president’s office that Serbian security forces arrested Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, one of the top two Balkans war crimes suspects, after 13 years on the run
A psychiatrist-turned-politician, he as responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed in Europe since the end of the Second World War, including the massacre of 8,000 men and boys in the Srebenica genocide.
He was originally jailed for 40 years at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, before it was increased to a life sentence without parole. He is expected to die in jail.
Prisoners convicted by the United Nations’ ICTY are distributed between member states.
He was flown in frim the Netherlands to the UK in 2021.
Britain was heavily involved in his conviction, with former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab acting as one of the young lawyers to draft the legal procedure to transfer him to the UK.