By Rachel Levy Jul 23, 2009, 5:32 GMT
The Hague - The prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia wants Radovan Karadzic to have a long trial, Peter Robinson, legal counsel for the former Bosnian Serb leader, said Thursday.
'The prosecution has produced more than a million documents for Dr Karadzic,' Robinson said, speaking before the start of Thursday's pre-trial meeting between the case's lawyers and judges.
'They try to prosecute him for every possible incident,' Robinson said. 'They want to reproduce the history of the war in Bosnia rather than conduct a criminal trial.'
Karadzic, who is defending himself at his trial at the Hague-based tribunal, has been charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed from 1992 to 1995 in the former Yugoslavia.
Robinson said the prosecution is 'hoping and expecting' the tribunal's mandate would be extended if Karadzic's trial takes longer than initially planned.
The tribunal plans to start downsizing its operations in 2010.
However, current expectations are that several cases, including that of the Bosnian Serb leader, might continue through 2012 or even 2013, which would require extending the mandate of the UN-sponsored court.
Thursday's status conference is to take up the defence's insistence over calling counterwitnesses for the 26 expert witnesses the prosecution wants to call, Robinson said.
Another issue concerns 230 regular prosecution witnesses. They are not to appear in court but file their testimony in writing after extensive questioning by the prosecution.
'Dr Karadzic wants to hear these 230 witnesses too,' Robinson said.
Karadzic was transferred to The Hague on July 30 after Serbian authorities arrested him nine days earlier.
Several status conferences have taken place since then. These pre-trial hearings focus exclusively on administrative issues of the actual trial rather than on the contents of the indictment.
During the past status conferences, presiding Judge Ian Bonomy repeatedly expressed his fear the trial would be dragged out as much as that of the late Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Yugoslavia.
Milosevic's trial began in 2002 and was not completed when he died in detention in 2006.
At his first court appearance in The Hague on July 31, Karadzic submitted nearly 100 pre-trial motions and briefs and more than 300 letters and responses - a record for the tribunal.
Robinson, however, blamed the prosecution for delaying the trial.
'If you extend the scope of the charges, you also extend the length of the trial,' he said.
At present, expectations are for the actual trial to start in late September at the very earliest.
A tribunal spokeswoman, however, warned that depending on incoming motions by either the prosecution or the defence, the court could schedule more status conferences, delaying the trial even further.
Robinson said Karadzic is in full control of his own defence.
'He is leading this case. He is very engaged and has many ideas. We, his legal counsel, provide input when it comes to issues of common law, and we share our legal experience.'
Robinson also said Karadzic was 'not depressed at all. He is looking forward to telling the world his side of the story.'
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