Radovan Karadzic conducts his own defence in his genocide trial, but he is being advised by a big group of lawyers and a lot of students. For months they have been preparing the defence of the former Bosnian-Serb leader.

The Amsterdam professor of international law Göran Sluiter was asked to form part of the team along with other international colleagues. He insisted as a precondition that Karadzic should respect the rules of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). After he had received assurances, he agreed to the request.

"In the first place because I consider that he too has the right to an effective defence. Ultimately, also with the goal of improving the quality of the administration of criminal justice. You can only have good administration of criminal justice is there’s also a good defence."

Legitimacy

The Amsterdam lawyer is busy with procedural matters, and with the question of which documents and statements from other cases may be used in the trial. He is particularly concerned at the question of whether the arrest of Karadzic in Belgrade in June 2008 was lawful.

Professor Sluiter is doing the work without payment, and is using students from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) to carry out research. Students have also been recruited in Australia and the former Yugoslavia to investigate matters which could be important for the defence.

Cooperation refused

Sluiter doesn’t know how the trial of Karadzic will proceed, especially now that the former Bosnian-Serb president is refusing to cooperate at the start of the trial. Karadzic has repeatedly said he needs more time to prepare his defence. Sluiter agrees:

"If you put that to people, the reaction is very often:’this man is delaying the business, so you must take strong action’. But if you then explain that it’s about someone who is confronted with millions of pages of documents, and that he wants to study and read them properly, then it’s easy to understand why this can’t be done in the time allowed. I also find it wholly unjust that the trial is already beginning."

If the court assigns a lawyer to Mr Karadzic against his wishes, Professor Sluiter says this will further complicate an already a complicated situation. The lawyer will need at least six months to read himself in, and Mr Karadzic doesn’t want to work with such a lawyer.

"Then you get into a situation with two parallel defences: one through the lawyer, and the other through Mr Karadzic. And then there’s the question of what Mr Karadzic may still do for himself? The lawyers still have to think about that. May he still submit pieces himself, submit motions and requests, or cross-examine witnesses? That will all be very complicated, and in the end the remedy may be worse than the disease."