BANJA LUKA, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Posters claiming war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic's innocence appeared Thursday in several Bosnian Serb towns, a day before he was due to enter a plea before a UN court.

The posters were plastered in the Bosnian Serb entity's administrative capital Banja Luka featuring a sketched profile of Karadzic, according to an AFP correspondent.

Since its 1992-1995 war, the former Yugoslav republic has consisted of two largely autonomous entities -- the Serb-run Republika Srpska and Muslim-Croat Federation.

Below the sketches were flags of the entity, Republika Srpska, and Russia, beside a caption that read: 'Rise up old Serbia and mighty Russia for an innocent man.'

The posters, carrying the sign of the nationalist group The Choice is Ours, were later taken down by municipal workers.

According to the association, the posters were put up in the eastern towns of Bijeljina and Doboj, as well as the Serbian capital Belgrade, where Karadzic was arrested last month.

The Choice is Ours is organising a support meeting for Karadzic to be held in Banja Luka on September 29.

Officials in Belgrade said Karadzic was captured while riding a bus disguised as a alternative medicine healer on July 21.

The wartime Bosnian Serb political leader had been on the run from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for more than a decade.

He faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity brought against him by ICTY prosecutors.

He is accused of commanding the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 dead, and of ordering the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the UN-protected area of Srebrenica.