Hague Tribunal Warns Karadzic for Frivolous Motions
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The trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Wednesday rejected Karadzics request to reopen his defence case in order to present a single written statement, saying that it was a waste of the courts time.
The chamber has observed that following the closing arguments in this case, the accused and his legal adviser have not paid regard to its repeated instruction to avoid filing frivolous motions which simply delay the expeditious nature of the trial and do not promote the interests of justice or advance his own case, the decision signed by judge O-Gon Kwon said.
The chamber reminds the accuseds legal adviser that the filing of motions should not be viewed as a numerical exercise to keep the chamber and the parties occupied and will consider what measures it can take if this warning is not taken seriously, it added.
Karadzic had asked the judges to admit into evidence a written document in order to prove the alleged bias of prosecution witness Mirsada Malagic.
The statement was from a conference in Sarajevo held in November 2013 in which, according to the motion, Malagic calls for Karadzic to be subject to the highest punishment for the crimes in Srebrenica.
The UN-backed war crimes court rejected Karadzics motion finding that, although the statement does represent new evidence, it has no probative value in evaluating the credibility of Malagics testimony.
Judge Kwon said that he had also taken into account the very advanced stage of proceedings. The closing arguments in the five-year-long trial were heard last year and the verdict is expected in October.
Malagic told Karadzics trial in January 2012 that she saw her husband and two sons for the last time on the road towards the village of Potocari on the day of the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Her husband and older son joined other men who were walking through the woods towards Tuzla, while the witness, her father-in-law and younger son went to the UN protection forces compound in Potocari. The place was crowded with people. I did not even say goodbye to my family properly. We parted ways while grenades were falling around us, Malagic said.
Malagic never saw her husband Salko again, or her sons Admir, 15, and Elvir, 20. Before loading them onto buses in Potocari on July 13, 1995, Serb soldiers separated the witness from her 70-year old father-in-law. She has never seen him again either.
Karadzic is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Bosniak men from Srebrenica and persecution of their female relatives and children in July 1995. He is also on trial for genocide in several other municipalities, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
