Radislav Krstić, former commander of the Drina Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS), was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with contempt of court, the tribunal announced.
Krstić, who was sentenced in 2004 to 35 years’ imprisonment following his conviction for aiding and abetting the genocide committed at Srebrenica in July 1995, failed to comply with a subpoena of the court.
The subpoena was issued in October 2012 and ordered Krstić to testify in the case of Radovan Karadžić.
However, the former Drina Corps commander did not appear on 15 January in court to testify, claiming his medical condition was the reason.
The chamber examined and later reviewed the medical report, finding that there were no medical reasons which would amount to good cause for the witness not to comply with the subpoena.
Nevertheless, it seems that Krstić had no intention of complying with the request of the court- he refused to testify for a second time on 25 March.
Clearly, Krstić’s behaviour has driven the ICTY crazy because on 27 March, the tribunal issued an order of an indictment for contempt. The former commander will thus be brought to court on 4 April in relation to the contempt of court charge.
Important to clarify, though, is that even if the court finds Krstić’ guilty of “disrespecting its authority”, this would still not have burden to “make” him appear and testify in the Karadžić trial.
