U.N. Court Drops One Genocide Count against Karadzic

The Yugoslav war crimes court on Thursday dropped one genocide charge against Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, but a second charge relating to the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica remains.

The judge said there was not enough evidence to substantiate the definition of genocide in relation to killings by Bosnian Serb forces in towns and villages in 1992.

Apart from the Srebrenica genocide charge, Karadzic also faces nine other charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict which left some 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million homeless.

"The chamber partially grants the motion and acquits the accused on count 1 of the indictment and denies the remainder of his request," International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia judge O-Gon Kwon said.

Once the most powerful leader among Bosnian Serbs, Karadzic, 66 earlier this month, asked for an acquittal on all counts, with his lawyers arguing that no genocide took place in Bosnia in 1992.

Arrested on a Belgrade bus in 2008 after years on the run, he was particularly wanted for masterminding the killings that followed the Serbs' capture of the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Close to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered over the course of a few days in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II -- an incident for which Karadzic has denied responsibility.

Under the tribunal's rules, the defense is allowed to seek acquittal after the prosecution has presented its case. Judges are then required to rule on the request before the defense puts forward its case, a process expected to begin on October 16.