Karadzic trial adjourned until January 20

Oct 28, 2008, 14:26 GMT

A file photograph showing former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic facing the United Nations (UN) court in The Hague, Netherlands on 29 August 2008. EPA/VALERIE KUYPERS / POOL

The Hague - The war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Tuesday at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was adjourned until January 20 after a tumultuous hearing session during which tempers flared.

The pre-trial hearing saw both the former Bosnian Serb leader and presiding judge Iain Bonomy expressing their respective frustration and anger, both related to the issue of presentation of evidence.

Karadzic complained he had been unable to prepare himself due to the fact he had received the Serb translation of the indictment against him only on Monday.

'I did not even have time to study it,' Karadzic told the court.

The revised indictment, the English version of which was released already on September 22, showed that the prosecution had reduced the number of charges from 41 to 27, in a move to speed up the trial.

At the hearing, Scottish judge Bonomy said he was 'extremely disappointed' about the slow speed of the trial preparations.

He said there had been little progress in the preparations since the former Bosnian Serb leader's arrest in July.

Emotions reached a boiling point when prosecutor Alan Tieger could not inform the court how many pages of the prosecution's evidence had not yet been transferred to Karadzic in the Serb language.

Bonomy, visibly annoyed, temporarily adjourned the hearing and left the court room.

Upon his return in the trial chamber, Tieger told the court a total of 60 pages of evidence had not yet been given to Karadzic in Serb translation.

Karadzic also complained he had insufficient resources to prepare his defence. The former Serb leader is defending himself but has one legal adviser, American attorney Peter Robinson, appointed by the tribunal earlier this month.

Radovan Karadzic was the Bosnian Serb political leader who, alongside the military chief Ratko Mladic, is held responsible for crimes such as the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 and the shelling of Sarajevo during the war that started in 1992.

He was arrested in Belgrade in July after 13 years on the run from justice and swiftly extradited to ICTY, where he faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Karadzic has appeared before the court in pre-trial hearings. The trial proper is not expected to start for several more months.