SARAJEVO, July 25: A travel ban on the family of Karadzic will remain in force until Bosnia’s peace envoy is sure that a visit to the war crimes suspect would not influence proceedings against him, officials said on Friday.

The leader of the Bosnian Serbs in the 1992-95 Bosnia war was arrested in Serbia this week after 11 years in hiding. His family wants to visit him before he is extradited to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Mario Brkic, spokesman for peace envoy Miroslav Lajcak, said a decision on lifting the ban would not be made “before it is determined that it would not jeopardise the prosecution or the arrest of the remaining fugitives.

“The Karadzic family will certainly be able to see their father and husband in many years to come,” Brkic said. “But victims of the war will never be able to see their dearest.”

Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic are indicted for genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.—Reuters