Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic says his rights were abused when he was arrested in Serbia last year.

He has filed a motion before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) demanding compensation. If convicted he wants a reduced sentence and if acquitted, he is asking for financial compensation.

- Listen to Karadzic's legal advisor Peter Robinson -

The motion claims that "the Serbian authorities falsely announced that he had been arrested on 21 July 2008. They took him to a judge for the first time on 22 July. However, he was in fact arrested on 18 July."

Karadzic now asks the tribunal in The Hague to find that his rights to liberty, to be informed of the reasons for his arrest, and to be taken promptly before a judicial officer, were violated during his arrest, and to hold an evidentiary hearing if necessary. Besides he wants an appropriate remedy, namely financial compensation in the event of an acquittal or reduction in sentence, in the event of a conviction, be fixed by the Trial Chamber as part of the final judgement in this case."
 

The motion states that Karadzic "was taken from the bus by men who did not identify themselves. He was transported to a location where he was held incommunicado for three days. During that time, he was never advised of the reason for his arrest, the identity of his captors, or brought before a judicial officer.

He was refused access to a telephone to inform anyone that he had been arrested."

Karadzic (64) is to go on trial for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity from September for his part in the 1992-95 war in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia.

He faces 11 charges related mainly to his role in the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead, and the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.
 

He had been on the run for 13 years before his arrest on a suburban bus disguised as a heavily-bearded alternative medicine healer.