Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic denied responsibility and knowledge of the killings after the fall of the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica, his legal adviser Peter Robinson told the court during the closing arguments on Thursday.
According to Robinson, Karadzic can not be held responsible for the genocide he is charged with by the prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
"There is no evidence that Karadzic planned or ordered the execution of prisoners or that he knew about it," he said. "Think about that, and you have to ask yourself why. Maybe it is simply not true."
In July 1995, Srebrenica fell into the hands of the troops of former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic, also in court at the ICTY. After the fall over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed.
The now 69-year-old Karadzic is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws or customs of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The responsibility for the Srebrenica massacre is one of the main charges.
The former President of the Republika Srpska was transferred into the tribunal's custody in July 2008 and his trial commenced in October 2009. Last Monday, five years after the start of the trial, the closing arguments began with the prosecution calling him a driving force behind the crimes committed during the Bosnian war.
"Hundreds of witnesses and pieces of evidence confirmed the policy of ethnic cleansing, in which Karadzic was a driving force," prosecutor Alan Tieger told the court.
On Tuesday the prosecutors completed their arguments by saying that life in prison "would be the only appropriate sentence".
The prosecution and defense both got 10 hours for the closing arguments and on Wednesday Karadzic, who did most of his defense himself in the past years, began his remarks. He argued that the ICTY was biased against Serbs.
"The Serb people stand accused," he said. "There was never been a situation where so many decent, innocent people, mostly Serbs, are imprisoned outside their country, while the murderers of Serbs go free."
Karadzic also denied the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs during the war.
"There is no example of a case like that," he said. "I only care for the truth, and the truth will set me free of all responsibility, except the moral responsibility, because I feel sad for everyone."
His legal adviser Robinson added on Thursday: "The prosecution failed to prove that the killings were conducted with the aim of destroying a group and thus achieving genocidal intent."
"If you agree to this legal lynching proposed by the prosecutors, you condemn an innocent man," Robinson also told the judges.
On Oct. 7 the closing arguments will be followed by the rebuttal and rejoinder arguments and after that the long wait for a verdict will begin. A judgment is expected in late 2015.
Karadzic will be the first of the "Big Three" suspects of the Bosnian war to hear his verdict. The trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic ended without a judgment when he died in his prison cell in The Hague on March 11, 2006.
Ratko Mladic, former General of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS), is still in his defense phase since May this year. A judgment is expected only in mid-2016.