Courtside

Karadzic Challenges Standby Counsel Decision

Defendant says not enough time for counsel to prepare for case of such magnitude and complexity.

By Rachel Irwin in The Hague (TU No 624, 13-Nov-09)

Radovan Karadzic this week asked for leave to appeal judges’ decision which appointed him standby counsel and postponed his trial until March 1, 2010.

As IWPR reported last week, the November 5 decision upheld Karadzic’s right to represent himself and participate fully in court proceedings.

If, however, the accused fails to appear in court in March or “obstructs the proper and expeditious conduct” of the proceedings, then he will “forfeit his right to self representation” and the yet-to-be appointed standby counsel will take over the case completely, the judges wrote.

The decision came after Karadzic refused to attend the start of his long-awaited trial on October 26 or the prosecutor’s subsequent opening statements, claiming that he needed more time to prepare his case. His previous request for an additional ten months of preparation was rejected by both trial and appeals judges.

In a four-page document dated November 12, Karadzic writes that the judges’ decision is “flawed in several respects, including failing to support its conclusion, seemingly picked out of thin air, that a 3 and ½ month period would be an adequate time for standby counsel to be prepared for trial in a case of this magnitude and complexity…”

Karadzic also states that the judges failed to instruct the registrar to provide him with a list of possible counsel from which to choose.

The judges have to approve his request to appeal before it can move forward.

In other news this week, Karadzic’s legal adviser, Peter Robinson, has confirmed to IWPR that he has suspended his work on the case because of a disagreement with the tribunal’s Office of Legal Aid and Detention, OLAD, regarding payment issues.

While Karadzic is representing himself, he has many legal advisers, some of whom are paid by the Hague tribunal as support staff.

According to the remuneration scheme established by the Hague tribunal last July, the support staff are entitled to be paid for a maximum of “150 out-of-court preparation hours … per month for the duration of the trial”.

However, OLAD says that since proceedings have been postponed until March 1, the trial has not started yet for purposes of the funding scheme.

There are also disagreements regarding payment for work done in the pre-trial phase.

“I have suspended my work until OLAD agrees to pay me,” Robinson told IWPR.

At a press conference at the Hague tribunal this week, court spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic said that “all of the decisions made by OLAD have been entirely consistent with the remuneration policy”.

Karadzic, the president of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska from 1992 to 1996, is accused of planning and overseeing the siege of Sarajevo that left nearly 12,000 people dead, as well as the massacre of almost 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

The indictment – which lists 11 counts in total – alleges that he is responsible for crimes of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer which “contributed to achieving the objective of the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian Serb-claimed territory”.

Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.