Judges will hand down their final verdict to former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic by the end of March 2019, the president of the international court in The Hague told Serbia’s Justice Minister on Tuesday, according to the Ministry.

Theodor Meron, the President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), the court tasked with finishing the work of the now-closed International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), informed Serbia’s Justice Minister Nela Kuburovic about the date during a meeting in New York.

Meron commended Serbia for supporting the establishment of an information centre in Belgrade which would provide access to the ICTY archive. He said that guidelines are being put together on how countries should execute the task and that the ICTY verdicts will be translated into local languages, Kuburovic’s statement said.

The Minister also spoke to the Head Prosecutor of IRMCT, Serge Brammertz, who told her that in his new report he emphasised the lack of regional cooperation regarding ongoing war crimes cases in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. He also condemned the glorifying of convicted war criminals and emphasised that it is crucial for all regional states to show commitment in searching for missing persons.

Kuburovic responded that Serbia regularly responds to requests from Bosnia and Croatia, but that there is a lack of willingness for cooperation on the part of the two countries when Serbia sends them requests and added that Croatia and Bosnia as well glorify their war criminals.

Karadzic was the wartime president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated part, Republika Srpska. He appealed his 40-year jail sentence handed down to him by the ICTY for genocide and other war crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.