Mladic Defence Allowed ‘Unfair Trial’ Claim Appeal

The Hague Tribunal on Wednesday said Ratko Mladic’s lawyers could appeal against the decision rejecting the defence claim that the former Bosnian Serb military chief’s right to a fair trial had been violated.

The Tribunal’s initial decision said the unfair trial claim was unfounded.

Mladic’s defence claimed in May that his right to a fair trial had been violated by the fact that legal assistants to the judges, who participated in the preparation of the verdict convicting former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, were offering the same type of assistance to the judges in the case against Mladic.

According to the defence, this meant that the basic procedural rule that Mladic was innocent until proven guilty had been violated.
At the time, the defence asked the trial chamber to provide it with detailed information about which of the judicial assistants involved in the Karadzic case were also involved in the case against Mladic.

As an alternative, the defence suggested that the entire case against Mladic be declared invalid due to a violation of his right to a fair trial.

In March, the Tribunal pronounced a first-instance verdict sentencing Karadzic to 40 years in prison for genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
Mladic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, is on trial for the same crimes.

At the beginning of July, the trial chamber rejected the defence’s allegation that Mladic’s trial was unfair, pointing out that the verdict was handed down exclusively by judges, not by their legal assistants.

The defence then asked the chamber to either reconsider the decision or allow an appeal against it.

The judges rejected the request to reconsider their decision, but they allowed Mladiccs defense to file an appeal against it, saying it was an important matter that might influence the trial.

A decision on the appeal will be made by the Tribunal’s appeals chamber.