[JURIST] A lawyer for Bosnian Serb leader and former fugitive Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] on Thursday threatened to sue several unknown persons whom he alleges kidnapped Karadzic last week. Serbian officials have said that Karadzic was arrested on Monday [JURIST report], but Karadzic disputes that date, saying he was first captured on Friday and then detained in an unknown location over the weekend. Also Thursday, a spokesman for the Serbian war crimes prosecutor [official website] vowed to find the people responsible for helping Karadzic evade capture for the past 12 years. Karadzic currently awaits extradition to the Hague to face war crimes charges [amended indictment] before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official site]. AP has more.

Karadzic was originally indicted [text] by the ICTY in 1995, but had been in hiding under an assumed identity until his arrest. Karadzic is accused of being involved in the Srebrenica [JURIST news archive] massacre and other crimes against Bosnian Muslims and Croats during ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. His capture has been a major goal of the ICTY [press release], and follows the June arrest [JURIST report] of former Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin [Trial Watch profile]. Former ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [BBC profile] frequently criticized Serbia for its seeming reluctance to cooperate with the ICTY, exemplified by its failure to find and capture [JURIST report] remaining war crimes suspects such as Karadzic. Serge Brammertz [ICC profile; JURIST report] became Chief Prosecutor in January, saying that he would continue his predecessor's tough stance on Serbian cooperation [JURIST report] with the tribunal. Brammertz has vowed to try all war crimes suspects [JURIST report] before the expiration of the ICTY's mandate in 2010.