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Karadzic: Without Legal Advisors
Sarajevo | 12 November 2009 |
Peter Robinson
In September and October 2009 Radovan Karadzic’s legal team asked the Tribunal to authorize financial resources for the preparation of his defence, and allow and additional 7,500 hours for preparations of the “complex case”.
At the time it was said that the additional time was needed because the Prosecution wanted to examine 480 witnesses, which was, as he said, “the largest number of witnesses proposed to be examined before the Tribunal”, and because a large amount of evidence had to be analyzed.
On 5 November the Hague Tribunal rendered a decision, rejecting his request for financial resources. Therefore, starting from 10 November, they stopped working. This includes the leader of the team, US attorney Peter Robinson.
The Hague Tribunal Secretariat previously approved payment for eight members of his legal team, determining they would be paid between 15 and 35 Euro per hour.
Karadzic is charged with genocide committed in Srebrenica and 10 other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the sniper and shelling campaign in Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995.
After Karadzic had refused to appear in the courtroom during the course of presentation of the Prosecution’s introductory arguments, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, rendered a decision by which the trial would begin on March 1, 2010.
The indictee insists on defending himself, saying, during the course of his first appearance before the Tribunal, that he had “an invisible ally”. A group of experienced international legal experts and experts from the former Yugoslavia assist him in preparation of his defence.
