A war criminal is suing the British government for human rights breaches after being told he cannot have a laptop in his jail cell.
Radovan Karadžić – who is serving a life sentence in Albany Prison on the outskirts of Newport, in the Isle of Wight – earned the nicknames ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ and ‘Master of life and death’ for his crimes.
He is known as one of the masterminds of the Bosnian genocide – the very worst massacre in Europe after the defeat of the Nazis.
The 79-year-old claims he has been banned from speaking in his native Serbian and denied food needed to control his diabetes.
Last week Karadžić appeared in court via video link to sue Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood for £50,000, the Sun reported.
Representing himself, he claimed he was denied visits from his friends and family, adding: ‘My people cannot visit me. This is unbelievable.’
‘There are 80 prisons in the UK which approve computers in rooms. Why isn’t this prison doing this?’
If the court sides with him, it will be British taxpayers who will have to foot the bill.
Karadžić was the president of Republika Srpska, the self-declared Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War (1992-1995).
He was a central figure in the conflict, spearheading the armed forces when the former Yugoslavia descended into ethnic bloodshed.
The most infamous event tied to his leadership is the Srebrenica massacre, where over 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were systematically executed by Bosnian Serb forces.
He was also implicated in the prolonged siege of Sarajevo, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.
In 1995, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indicted him for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
After the war, Karadžić went on the run, with the US government offering a $5 million reward for information.
The criminal became one of the world’s most wanted men, swapping his trademark bouffant hairstyle for a long white beard.
He was finally arrested in 2008 on a bus in Belgrade, using the false name of Dragan Dabic, after 13 years on the run.
He was found guilty in March 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia – two decades after he was indicted.
British foreign secretary Dominic Raab said at the time: ‘Radovan Karadzic is one of the few people to have been found guilty of genocide.
‘He was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians.’
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