What will Radovan Karadzic's trial be like? A comparison with the protracted case against former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006, is obvious, especially now that Mr Karadzic has announced he wants to conduct his own defence. The question is, has the Yugoslavia Tribunal learned enough to prevent yet another disappointment? Former prosecutor Sir Geoffrey Nice and amicus curiae (friend of the court) Tim McCormack give their comments on the issue.

The charges against Radovan Karadzic are a lot less complicated than those brought against Slobodan Milosevic. Serbia's former president was indicted on 66 counts, compared to 11 in the Karadzic trial. And maybe there will be even less, because the indictment could still be changed ahead of the actual trial. As a result the trial is expected to start sooner than the one of Mr Milosevic, who spent more than a year in his cell at the Scheveningen prison waiting for his trial to begin.

Less extensive charges
Mr Milosevic was accused of crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Mr Karadzic is accused only of crimes in Bosnia. Another difference is that Milosevic was accused of being a member of a criminal organisation, whereas Karadzic is not.

The reason why the prosecutors at the Yugoslavia tribunal chose to bring such an extensive list of charges against Mr Milosevic was mostly to do with the victims. The prosecutors wanted the largest possible number of victims to be able to see their own war experiences reflected in the indictment. This also explains why so many different Bosnian and Croat towns were listed in the indictment, even when the charges were often nearly identical.

Tim McCormack - appointed as amicus curiae in the final phase of the Milosevic trial - does not believe that such a complicated indictment could ever be truly comprehensive.

"It's impossible to be exhaustive. So the prosecution has to be selective and it's better to be representative in the types of charges than to try to prove everything and then not be able to establish any guilt or innocence on any front."

Three day week
Mr McCormack says the judges should warn prosecutors if their indictment is too broadly formulated. However, former prosecutor Sir Geoffrey Nice (pictured below) denies this was the case in the Milosevic trial.

Sir Geoffrey Nice"It is probably a false belief that it's the scale of the indictments that takes time, or that time is excessively used. For example, the Milosevic case was nothing like as long as people think it was. It lasted four years, but that was with many long periods of time not sitting at all, sitting very short days, and only three days a week when we did sit. So it probably was a trial that would only have lasted two years or a bit under if it had been conducted in a normal way."

Clever self-defence
Mr Nice says the trial could have been completed in under two years if Mr Milosevic had not fallen ill.
"We lost many trial days as a result, and because of his poor health we could only sit for three-and-a-half days a week. Had Milosevic been represented by a lawyer, the trial could have continued during his illness".

Both experts are nevertheless agreed that Mr Karadzic has the right to conduct his own defence. However, Sir Geoffrey Nice points out that Mr Karadzic would not have had that privilege had he stood trial in Serbia. Mr McCormack says that Mr Milosevic made clever use of his right to conduct his own defence.
"I think Mr Milosevic was careful not to cross a sort of clear demarcation in the sand too often because he didn't want to forfeit his right to self-representation. Seselj in contrast has crossed that boundary many times and been verbally abusive to the judges, and said some outrageous things in court. And the judges have had a harder time trying to rein him in in terms of his behaviour."

Serbian nationalism
There is a good chance that if Karadzic conducts his own defence, he will seize the opportunity to propagate his Serbian nationalistic vision on Bosnian history. Because he is not a lawyer, he is not expected to primarily focus on legal arguments. This could prompt the judges to force Mr Karadzic to accept legal representation. However, Mr McCormack says this is such a strong measure that they will try to avoid it taking it.

Sir Geoffrey Nice says the judges in the Milosevic trial were right to allow the suspect to defend himself. He often protested against the leeway the former Serbian president was given to delay the proceedings, but he understands the court's decision.

"No one can say that Mr Milosevic did not get a fair trial".The Yugoslavia tribunal officially comes to an end in 2010, but there will not be problem should the trial last longer than two years. The United Nations has already said that the tribunal will be re-opened if the main suspects are arrested after the tribunal has closed.

* RNW translation (gsh)