It was recently revealed that former Bosnian Serb politician, Radovan Karadzic, also known as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia, has been transferred to HMP Isle of Wight to serve his life sentence.
In the middle of last month (May), the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, announced that Radovan Karadzic would be transferred to a prison in the UK to serve his sentence after being convicted of genocide at an International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in The Hague.
Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity
The Court had sentenced him to 40 years of imprisonment, which was increased on appeal to a life sentence, for the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces.
The 75-year-old was also found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mr Raab described Srebrenica as “the darkest moment in European history since the Holocaust”.
Daughter: Kept in “unacceptable” conditions
The location of which prison Radovan Karadžić has been placed at came to light after his daughter, Sonja Karadzic-Jovicevic, complained about the conditions he was being kept in.
She said the accommodation conditions were “unacceptable”, that the building is full of carcinogenic asbestos and that her father is in a very “uncivilised situation”.
HMP Isle of Wight
Figures in 2018 revealed that 98 per cent of Isle of Wight prison population is made up of sex offenders.
In September 2018, prison officers said that staffing levels had been decimated at HMP Isle of Wight, putting officers and inmates at increased risk.
In February 2020, an inspection of the HMP Isle of Wight found that prisoners were using buckets as toilets.
