Karadzic
© Jerry Lampen/ReutersKaradzic faces nine other charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia has dropped one genocide charge against wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, but a similar charge over the Srebrenica massacre still stands.

Presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said there was not enough evidence to substantiate the definition of genocide in relation to killings by Bosnian Serb forces in towns and villages of Bosnia from March to December 1992.

In addition to the Srebrenica genocide charge, Karadzic faces nine other charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1992-1995 conflict which left some 100,000 people dead and more than 2 million homeless.

"The chamber partially grants the motion and acquits the accused on count one of the indictment and denies the remainder of his request," Mr Kwon said.

Genocide is the gravest crime in international humanitarian law - and the hardest to prove.

The evidence presented in the prosecution case "does not rise to the level which could sustain a conclusion that the serious bodily or mental harm suffered... in the municipalities" could "lead to the death of the whole or part of the population," Mr Kwon said.

In Sarajevo, Karadzic's acquittal on the genocide charge came as a surprise, said Murat Tahirovic, an official representing a union of former inmates.

"We did not expect it, because Karadzic is still the creator of all that happened in Bosnia, especially in municipalities affected by the court's decision... where a crime almost as serious as Srebrenica was committed in the beginning of the conflict and with the same goal," he said.

Karadzic, 66, had sought an acquittal on all counts, with his lawyers arguing that no genocide took place in Bosnia in 1992.

Arrested on a Belgrade bus in 2008 after years on the run, Karadzic was wanted in particular for masterminding the killings that followed the Serbs' capture of the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Close to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered over the course of a few days in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II - an incident for which Karadzic has denied responsibility.

Source: Agence France-Presse