The Hague: Bosnian Serb wartime leader
Radovan Karadzic will boycott the start of his genocide trial
in a UN court next week, his lawyer said today, possibly
throwing the proceedings into disarray.
"I hereby inform you that my defence is not ready for my
trial that is supposed to begin as scheduled, on the 26th of
October, and that therefore I shall not appear before you on
that date," Karadzic said in a submission to the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The document was released by his legal adviser Peter
Robinson.
Karadzic was set to go on trial next Monday on 11 counts
of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his
role in Bosnia`s inter-ethnic 1992-95 war that claimed an
estimated 1,00,000 lives.
He is charged as one of the alleged authors of a plan to
"permanently remove" Bosnian Muslims and Croats from
Serb-claimed territory -- including for his role in the
44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead and
the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys at
Srebrenica.
Karadzic, who denies all the charges against him and
plans to conduct his own defence, told the judges he was being
denied adequate time to prepare a proper case.
Bureau Report
