SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Bosnian Serb police seized passports of family members of war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic to keep them in the country.
Tamara Maric, spokeswoman of the Bosnian Serb-run Republika Srpska police, said the confiscation of identification documents and passports was aimed at banning Karadzic's family members from leaving Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serbian news agency Tanjug said Thursday.
The move was carried out at the request of Bosnia's High Representative Miroslav Lajcak, a Slovak diplomat, in the wake of recently opened inquiries against scores of people on suspicion of helping former Bosnian Serb political leader Karadzic and three other war crimes fugitives.
The documents were taken from Karadzic's wife, son, daughter and son-in-law on suspicion they have been aiding Radovan since he went on hiding in 1995.
The Bosnia-Herzegovina Prosecution Office in Sarajevo this week said it opened an investigation against 42 people suspected of helping Karadzic and other three fugitives sought by a U.N. war crimes tribunal for genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1991-95 ethnic wars in the former Yugoslavia.
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