Lawyer imposed on Karadzic, trial delayed to March 1

by Mariette le Roux Thu Nov 5, 1:11 PM ET

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A UN warcrimes court Thursday imposed a lawyer on Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and put off to March 1 the genocide trial he has boycotted since it started last week.

"The overall interests of justice are best met by the appointment of counsel," said a written decision by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

"The trial chamber hereby ... orders that the trial will resume on March 1, 2010."

Karadzic, 64, has boycotted his trial since it opened on October 26, demanding more time to prepare his defence, which he insists on conducting himself.

He stands charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnian war in which some 100,000 people died and 2.2 million were forced to flee their homes.

The judges ordered the court registry to appoint counsel to represent Karadzic's interests when the trial resumes. This did not necessarily mean that he would lose his right to self-representation, they said, though warning that this would change if he continues his boycott.

"The accused has indeed substantially and persistently obstructed the proper and expeditious conduct of his trial by refusing to attend the proceedings," it said.

"The accused's conduct has effectively brought the trial to a halt, which is evidently his purpose."

Karadzic currently enjoys the backing of a team of some 20 legal advisers, many of them volunteers, but would lose that privilege if he persists in his defiance, in which case the assigned lawyer would take over, said the court.

If he cooperated, however, Karadzic could continue to represent himself in court with the appointed counsel "available to step in at any time the chamber determines it to be necessary".

Karadzic will have seven days to apply for permission to appeal the ruling, and another seven days thereafter to file an appeal.

Marko Sladojevic, one of his legal advisers, told AFP that Karadzic needed time to study the decision fully, but would "take a constructive approach and will try to find a compromise that will satisfy all sides involved".

Appealing was "a possibility", he said.

Karadzic made his first appearance before the tribunal on Tuesday since the start of his trial, taking part in a procedural hearing to determine how to continue the case in the face of his boycott.

As the prosecution accused him of obstruction, he stubbornly insisted on more time to finish studying 1.3 million pages of prosecution evidence and the statements of hundreds of witnesses.

The court said on Thursday that three-and-a-half months would be enough for the assigned counsel to prepare.

Continuing in Karadzic's absence, or that of counsel to represent him, was not the best option, the judges concluded.

"The truth-seeking function of the trial process would be deprived of defence evidence."

The judges "encouraged" Karadzic to cooperate fully with the appointed counsel.

Arrested on a Belgrade bus in July last year after 13 years on the run, Karadzic risks life imprisonment if convicted of crimes that include the massacre of 7,000 Muslims at Srebrenica and the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that killed some 10,000 people.

Prosecutor Alan Tieger has branded Karadzic "the "supreme commander" of an ethnic cleansing campaign of Croats and Muslims during Bosnia's war.

He is alleged to have worked with Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic in pursuit of a "Greater Serbia", which was to include 60 percent of the territory of Bosnia.

Milosevic died midway through his own genocide trial in March 2006, while Karadzic's former military general, Ratko Mladic, is still on the run.