Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appealed on Wednesday against the imposition of a court-appointed lawyer at his war crimes trial, arguing that Bosnian and Serbian lawyers were excluded from representing him.

Judges appointed London-based barrister Richard Harvey in October after Karadzic boycotted the first three days of his trial, saying he needed more time to prepare his defence.
 

The United Nations court trying Karadzic for genocide overruled his objection to the appointment. Wednesday's filing was to the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
 

Karadzic denies all 11 counts of war crimes relating to the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including the genocide of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, the worst atrocity of the conflict.
 

His trial was adjourned until March to give Harvey time to prepare.
 

In a 23-page filing, Karadzic argued that a shortlist of lawyers to assist in the defence prepared by the court's registrar ignored the court's own rules on eligibility.
 

"This procedure resulted in the elimination of every single lawyer from the Balkans and left only three lawyers eligible for the appointment," Karadzic said in his appeal. Two more lawyers were added to the list, but Karadzic rejected all five.
 

It was then that the court appointed Harvey.
 

"Instead of allowing the accused to choose a lawyer, and thereby enjoy a collaborative relationship, the Trial Chamber sanctioned the imposition of a lawyer on the accused whom the accused did not want and cannot trust," Karadzic said.
 

He asked the appeals chamber to order that he be allowed to pick a supporting counsel from the court's original broader list, before it was whittled down.
 

Source: Reuters