Karadzic to Get Fresh Hague Indictment

Karadzic,who made his third appearance before The Hague Tribunal since his arrest in Belgrade on July 21, said he had not read the current indictment, adding that he expected to get a new chance to enter his plea once he received the new indictment.

At the first pre-trial status conference Karadzic was not accompanied by his legal team or Defence attorney. Despite judge Ian Bonomy’s advice, he once again said that he wanted to represent himself during the course of the entire process.

“Nobody could defend me better than me, because nobody knows all the facts as well as I know them,” Karadzic said, adding that he was not defending himself alone, but also “the people, who have suffered so much, Republika Srpska and Serbia”.

Karadzic said, just like the first time he appeared before the Court that he was not alone as he had “invisible allies”.

At the status conference Karadzic discussed with the Tribunal, his request to have all relevant documents translated into Serbian language, using Cyrillic letters, before submitting them to him.

“Reading Cyrillic script is a family tradition in my case. It was created by my family, so I have an interest in using it,” Karadzic explained.

The Prosecution responded to his request earlier, claiming that all documents would be submitted to him in official languages of the Tribunal – English,French and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, BCS.

“I do not know what BCS language is. Serbian is my mother tongue,” Karadzic said, still insisting on his original request, which will be further considered by the Tribunal.

Once again, Karadzic mentioned his agreement with US Special Envoy Richard Hoolbrok, claiming that this agreement guaranteed him that he would not be arrested and adding that he had opened a personal investigation on this issue.

“I do not think that Holbrook spoke to me as a US Envoy only, but rather as a representative of the Contact Group. Therefore I want this to be taken into consideration,” Karadzic said.

Judge Bonomy announced that his next appearance would be scheduled within thenext 30 days.

Radovan Karadzic was arrested after having been on the run for 13 years. When the arrest took place he had personal documents, issued in the name of Dragan Dabic, with him. He was handed over to the Tribunal on July 31 this year.

After he had refused to enter his plea on August 29, judge Bonomy, following the existing procedure, recorded a plea of not guilty.

The indictment, which was last amended in 2000, charges him, under 11 counts,including genocide and crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the course of the war, from 1992 to 1995.