By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic asked the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in The Hague on Tuesday to grant him a provisional release until the final verdict in his trial is announced next year.

The verdict, which was scheduled to be announced in December, was postponed due to changes in the judging panel. The presiding judge, Theodor Meron, removed himself from the proceedings after Karadzic’s defense accused him of bias.

Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016 on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity relating to the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. He filed an appeal seeking an acquittal or retrial.

The shelling of Sarajevo was among the crimes Karadzic was found guilty of during his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which the MICT replaced.