Hague Denies Karadzic More Time for Defence

The Tribunal’s appeals chamber ruled that Karadzic had not demonstrated that 300 hours was an inadequate amount of time for his defence.

It also stressed that while the trial chamber is required to allocate sufficient time for the accused to present his defence, it also has an obligation to ensure that proceedings do not suffer unnecessary delays.

Karadzic’s appeal against the 300-hour ruling claimed he was not granted enough time to try to challenge 2,300 facts that were established at earlier trials before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and are being used as evidence against him.

He said in his appeal that during the presentation of the prosecution’s evidence he spent 700 hours cross-examining witnesses, and demanded an extra 300 hours for his defence.

The prosecution spent nearly 300 working hours presenting its evidence from April 2010 to May 2012, examining a total of 196 witnesses.

Former Bosnian Serb leader and supreme commander Karadzic is being tried for crimes against civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats and taking UN soldiers hostage during the 1990s conflict.