Radovan Karadzic conducts his own defence in his genocide trial, but he has an international team of top lawyers, academics and interns at his disposal. For months they have been preparing the defence of the former Bosnian-Serb leader. 

By Sebastiaan Gottlieb, The Hague

Karadzic’s defence team is led by US lawyer Peter Robinson, who is coordinating procedure while Serb lawyer Goran Petronijevic heads up the legal advisers.

Karadzic also has three case managers and two researchers at his disposal, paid for by the UN court. As well as this he can call on around forty international academics and lawyers who work for him unpaid.

The Amsterdam professor of international law Göran Sluiter was one of the academics 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 ICTY. After he had received assurances, he agreed to the request. Sluiter has also advised prosecutors at the court in the past.

When questioned on his motives for assisting with Karadzic’s defence, he replied, “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 if there’s also a good defence”

Legitimacy
The Amsterdam lawyer is studying procedural matters, and working on 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 July 2008 was lawful.

Professor Sluiter is doing the work on a voluntary basis, 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 since the former Bosnian-Serb president refused to cooperate at the start of the trial on October 26th. 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.”

The court has now assigned a stand-by lawyer to Karadzic against his wishes and adjourned the genocide trial until March 1st. Some see this as a minor victory for Karadzic who has once again succeeded in delaying his trial. However, it still does not meet his request for an extra 10 months to prepare his defence and study the 1.3 million pages of evidence and the hundreds of witness statements submitted by the prosecution.

The situation is complicated. The stand-by lawyer appointed by the court will need at least six months to prepare himself and Karadzic has already said he doesn’t want to work with him.

Sluiter warns that conducting two parallel defences could be very difficult. It raises the question of whether Karadzic can submit motions and requests, or cross-examine witnesses.

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