PETRONIJEVIĆ: EVERY RIGHT OF KARADŽIĆ'S HAS BEEN VIOLATED IN PRISON

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 18 /SRNA/ - There is no right that the first President of Republika Srpska Radovan Karadžić had in prison in Great Britain that has not been violated, Karadžić's attorney Goran Petronijević told SRNA.

According to him, a striking example of the torture against Karadžić was the decision by the British judicial authorities to ban the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ priest Radmilo Stokić from visiting him.

"He has already visited Karadžić several times. He went to him to fulfill his need to practice his faith and confess, which is one of the most sacred rights belonging to every person, regardless of their religion. However, even that was prevented, which proves that all of Karadžić's rights have been denied," Petronijević said.

Petronijević emphasized that after this incident, everyone who had contact with Karadžić is powerless to do anything to help him, because until now, they acted based on their conversations with him and what he told them.

He emphasized that they absolutely trust Karadžić, not the judicial authorities or those who commit such violations of prison rights.

"But now we are powerless, because the Hague Tribunal, or rather its Residual Mechanism, when this is presented to them and told to see what they are doing to the man and that they must intervene, they deny it and say, `everything is fine, he's making it up,`" Petronijević explained.

Petronijević pointed out that the very fact that everything is far from fine is confirmed by the recent ban on Priest Stokić's visit, which is one of the blatant proofs of torture against Karadžić.

Priest Radmilo Stokić was recently not allowed to visit Radovan Karadžić at the Albany prison on the Isle of Wight.

Stokić told SRNA that he had already visited Karadžić five times, and that he had requested and scheduled the visit two weeks in advance, but upon arriving at the prison, he was not allowed to see him, despite having traveled for eight hours.

He added that he has been a Serbian Orthodox Church chaplain for 20 years, has entered many prisons from Scandinavia to Estonia and other countries where Serbian prisoners are held, and has never encountered a situation where he was denied access to a prison chapel.

"So far, it has never happened that I was unable to conduct a service or to hear confessions and administer communion to prisoners. This is the only case in a `Christian country` like England, which is inhumane, unacceptable, and intolerable," Stokić said.