A LEADING barrister who represented the family of Jim Wray, one of those shot dead on Bloody Sunday, at the Saville inquiry has been assigned as legal counsel to Radovan Karadzic, who is on trial for war crimes in The Hague.
Richard Harvey, a leading British barrister, was counsel for the Wray family during the inquiry.
Jim Wray was shot dead in Glenfada Park in the Bogside and during the inquiry it emerged that forensic evidence suggested he had been shot twice while lying face down on the ground.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia appointed the London-based barrister on November 5th, following Mr Karadzic’s refusal to attend the trial.
Mr Harvey has been given until March 2010 to prepare his client’s defence. Mr Karadzic, defending himself, has repeatedly requested more time to prepare owing to the 1.3 million pages of evidence and hundreds of witness statements submitted by the prosecution.
A close legal adviser to Mr Karadzic has said he does not believe the former Yugoslavian leader will co-operate with Mr Harvey.
Peter Robinson, legal adviser to Mr Karadzic, said: “Dr Karadzic will not co-operate with Mr Harvey. He will be filing a challenge to the appointment in the near future. The registrar violated his own procedures [as] an accused should be provided the list of counsel and be allowed to choose from that list.”
Mr Karadzic’s alleged crimes include the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, which began in 1992, and the genocide of over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
Mr Harvey has a long history of being involved in human rights cases. As well as working with the Bloody Sunday inquiry, he taught human rights and practised law in Harlem, New York.
Mr Harvey’s practice has included serving as counsel to the government of South Africa. In Haiti, he was counsel to President Jean Bertrand Aristide, assisting in prosecuting murder and intimidation under the military junta which ousted him.
He has conducted major political asylum cases involving clients from Haiti, Northern Ireland and South Africa.