Former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic found guilty of genocide, sentenced to 40 years

The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is guilty of genocide in the brutal Srebrenica massacre, a UN war crimes tribunal said. Karadzic is the highest-ranking official to be convicted for war crimes in Bosnia.

Karadzic ordered the takeover of Srebrenica and agreed to the killing of thousands of Bosniaks in 1995, presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said on Thursday.

The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) also convicted Karadzic on charges of crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution, as well as sniping and shelling during the three-year siege of Sarajevo.

The Hague judicial council sentenced the 70-year-old defendant to a prison term of 40 years. Karadzic intends to appeal the verdict, according to his lawyer.

"Dr Karadzic is disappointed and astonished," his attorney Peter Robinson told reporters.

Thousands dead in Srebrenica

Karadzic had worked as a psychiatrist and wrote poetry before rising to his position as political leader of the Serbian population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the outbreak of the ethnically-fueled war in the 1990's.

The Bosnian war claimed over 100,000 lives between 1992 and 1995, with Croat, Serb and Bosniak forces trading accusations for numerous atrocities.

Most notably, Bosnian Serb forces executed over 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica, brushing aside Dutch UN peacekeepers from the town's "safe area" in 1995.

The Srebrenica massacre remains the worst war crime on European soil since World War II.

The top military general of Bosnian Serbs, Ratko Mladic, is also facing ICTY charges for the Srebrenica slaughter.

From president to spiritual healer

The conflict ended in 1995, with internationally brokered peace accord which divided the former Yugoslavian state into two entities, Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat federation.

Karadzic went into hiding after the war. He spent 13 years avoiding capture before he was arrested in 2008 in Belgrade, where he lived under an assumed name as a "New Age" healer.

He has repeatedly claimed his innocence before the court and in the media, painting himself as a peacemaker.

Belgrade to 'protect' Bosnian Serbs

Karadzic posing as a 'New Age' healer Dragan Dabic

Ahead of the Thursday verdict, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic warned against using the court's decision "as an excuse for political or other attacks against the Republika Srpska," the Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"We will stand with our people, we will protect the right to survive and exist in Republika Srpska," he added.

Karadzic is still considered a hero by many Serbian nationalists, especially those in Bosnia. Earlier this week, the entity's head Milorad Dodik accused the international community of trying to discredit Republika Srpska's leaders, and called the Karadzic trial "humiliating" for the state.