Karadzic: Trial postponed due to illness
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In the short session, Judge Kwon said that the Trial Chamber was informed that Karadzic is not feeling well, but he did not disclose any details. Karadzic’s legal adviser Peter Robinson, and Prosecutor Alan Tieger, also did not disclose any details.
The Judges, Defense counsels and the Prosecution will gather again in courtroom on Tuesday, December 6, in order to continue the trial if Karadzic would be in better condition, or they will discuss the next steps, if the indictee is not able to come to the courtroom.
Since the beginning of the trial on the end of October 2009, it has never before been interrupted due to Karadzic’s illness. At the beginning of the process, the Trial Chamber appointed British lawyer Richard Harvey as stand-by counsel to Karadzic. Harvey’s task is to take over the defence, if Karadzic is seen as obstructing the trial.
For this trial, it was envisaged that the prosecutors continue presenting evidence of genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995, by the testimony of Andras Riedlmayer, the expert for destroyed Bosnian religious and cultural heritage.
The Trial Chamber has so far examined six witnesses from Srebrenica – one survivor of mass execution of Bosniaks, three officers of the Dutch Battalion of UNPROFOR and two experts who worked on the excavation of mass graves.
Karadzic, the former President of Republika Srpska is also indicted for persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as for terror against civilians by long-lasting shelling and sniper in Sarajevo and taking UN soldiers hostage in the period from 1992 to 1995.
R.M.
