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Karadzic Gets Delay, and Lawyer, in War Crimes Trial

Source: NYT (11-5-09)

PARIS — Judges ordered Thursday that a lawyer be imposed on Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader on trial in The Hague for war crimes and genocide, but halted the trial until March 1, to give a lawyer time to get ready.

Their decision effectively gave Mr. Karadzic, who has insisted on representing himself, almost four additional months to prepare his defense, which is more than an appeals court gave him when it ordered the case to begin.

“We need time to digest this decision,” said Marco Sladojevic, one of the lawyers assisting Mr. Karadzic. “We will try to find a constructive answer when the team meets with him tomorrow.”

Since his trial before the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague opened Oct. 26, Mr. Karadzic has forced the court’s hand by staying in his cell.

He showed up briefly for a procedural hearing on Tuesday, only to argue again that he needed more time to deal with the great load of materials relating to the charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnian war...

Posted on Friday, November 6, 2009 at 8:21 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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