The Hague Tribunal Trial Chamber rejects Karadzic's request to be allowed to appeal the Tribunal's decision appointing counsel to represent him.
"The Chamber considers that the indictee failed to show why he should be allowed to appeal the decision. The indictee wrongly described the issue as 'imposing' or 'assigning' a counsel. (...), however, in the case, the Chamber has still not imposed a counsel," the Chamber said, adding that Karadzic would have the right to represent his interest at this trial if "he does not continue obstructing the trial".
Acting on an order issued by the Trial Chamber, the Registrar's Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, appointed, on November 20 this year, Richard Harvey, a British attorney, as Radovan Karadzic's counsel.
The appointment decision was made after Karadzic had refused to attend the hearings held on October 27 and November 2, at which the Hague Prosecution presented its introductory arguments. As per the Tribunal's decision, Harvey was given three and a half months to prepare for the trial.
The indictee asked the Tribunal to allow him to appeal the decision, claiming it was "deficient". However, the Trial Chamber determined that the right to appeal would, at this stage, be "premature, having in mind the status of the counsel, who is still just preparing for the trial".
"The Chamber considers the indictee's motion to be unclear, because it is not clear which aspects of the decision he wants to appeal. (...) In any case, it should be stated that it is not the indictee's role to question how much time will be given to the counsel to prepare for the trial," the Trial Chamber's decision says.
The Trial Chamber scheduled the resumption of the Karadzic trial for March 1, 2010, saying that the indictee would still have the right to "self-representation, unless he continued obstructing the proceedings".
Prior to the beginning of the trial, Karadzic asked the Tribunal to give him additional time to prepare his defence due to "the extreme complexity of the case", but the request was rejected.
Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of the RS armed forces, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. He was arrested in Serbia on July 21, 2008. His trial began in October this year.