War crime defendant Bosnian Serb leader on Monday filed a 140-page motion charges against him should be dropped because he secretly dealed with a top U.S. official in 1996 for 'immunity' over war crimes against Bosnian Muslims.
Radovan Karadzic, arrested and brought to the tribunal for former Yugoslavia last year after 11 years on the run, has said since his arrival that former U.S. peace mediator Richard Holbrooke promised him to be freed from any court case over his war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Karadzic said that Holbrooke said him the secret deal provided him immunity if he disappeared from public life.
"If the Trial Chamber finds that the Holbrooke agreement is binding on the Tribunal, it should order that the indictment be dismissed," Karadzic and his lawyer said in the motion filed on Monday.
Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnia war, faces two charges of genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.
Holbrooke has repeatedly denied the existence of a secret deal, describing Karadzic's claim as "no more than another lie from the most evil man in Europe".
The tribunal has said that even if one exists, it would not give Karadzic immunity from prosecution.
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