Serbian nationalists

Radovan Karadzic in court in April 2016. Photo: EPA/ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/POOL.

Former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic has submitted an appeal against the decision not to allow him to appeal his second-instance verdict, sentencing him to life in prison for genocide in Srebrenica, among other crimes.

Vasvija Vidovic, a lawyer who has represented former Bosnian Army soldiers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Bosnian state court, argued that defendants find themselves difficult financial situations because trials are long-running and very expensive.

Right-wing Dveri leader Bosko Obradovic is increasingly the face of a protest movement against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, alienating liberal Serbs.

An official state ceremony led by President Aleksandar Vucic was held in the southern Serbian city of Nis on Sunday evening, while at the same time nationalists protested in Belgrade on the anniversary of the start of the NATO military campaign on March 24.

Vucic told about 2,000 Serbians who attended the ceremony in Nis that the NATO bombing was a crime.

The decision to sentence Radovan Karadzic to life in imprison is "appropriate in the interest of justice," Turkey's foreign minister said on March 20.

The wartime political leader of Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina was on Wednesday sentenced to life in prison by the Appeals Chamber of the Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague.

The appeals verdict rendered on Wednesday changes the first-instance verdict, that in Match 2016 sentenced the first president of the Serb Republic (RS) to 40 years in prison.

Follow BIRN's reporters live for all the latest developments as the UN court in The Hague delivers its final verdict in the genocide and war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic.

"Certain political forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina still side with convicted criminals and joint criminal enterprises, which are glorified, and genocide, which is not admitted. Such politics are alive in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Mehmedovic told BIRN.

His identity has not been revealed, but Belgrade-based Vecernje Novosti daily writes on Tuesday, citing unofficial information, that the man was originally from Belgrade.