Judges at the war crimes tribunal in the Hague ordered today that the trial for Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will start on October 26th.
Mr Karadzic (64) whose appeal to delay the trial for 10 months was denied this week, faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, including two counts of genocide.
Arrested last year and brought to the Hague-based UN tribunal after 11 years on the run, Mr Karadzic has denied all charges and is representing himself.
In July, the war crimes court threw out a claim by Mr Karadzic that a secret deal made with a US envoy protects him from prosecution for genocide.
Mr Karadzic asked for his case to be dismissed on the grounds that Richard Holbrooke, Washington’s peace mediator for Bosnia at the end of its 1992 to 1995 war, promised him immunity from prosecution if he withdrew completely from politics.
After being indicted for war crimes and the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in July 1995, Mr Karadzic disappeared from public view.
He was arrested last year in Belgrade, where he had grown a beard and long hair and was working as a new-age healer.
Mr Karadzic’s wartime military commander, Ratko Mladic, is still on the run from similar war crimes and genocide charges.
Additional reporting: Reuters