Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has told judges he will boycott the start of his trial for war crimes next week, confronting them with a dilemma on how to proceed.
Charged with 11 counts, including genocide, over the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Karadzic yesterday filed a submission informing the court in The Hague that he would not appear in court for the scheduled start of his trial next Monday.
"This process is not ready to start, simply because the defence was not granted sufficient time and resources to prepare," Karadzic said in a letter to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The tribunal said today the trial - one of the biggest it has handled - would go ahead as planned, but a leading jurist said it was likely to delay the case.
"At the moment there is no indication that the procedure will not go ahead as scheduled. The control of court proceedings is entirely in the hands of the tribunal's judges," tribunal spokesperson Nerma Jelacic said in a statement.
Jelacic added that the trial chambers are the only relevant body that can make a decision about the readiness of the case.
Alexander Knoops, international criminal law professor at Utrecht University, said there were now several options before the tribunal, including delaying the case or appointing counsel to represent Karadzic, allowing for the trial to proceed.
Reuters