UN tribunal prosecutor pondering trying Mladic with Karadzic

Jun 1, 2011, 12:47 GMT

The Hague - It is 'theoretically possible' that former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic will be tried alongside former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, a United Nations prosecutor said Wednesday.

Karadzic was arrested in July 2008 and his trial began in October 2009. Like Mladic, he is accused of genocide for the slaughter of some 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica and for atrocities committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war.

'Based on the rules of procedure, it is still theoretically possible,' Serge Brammertz, prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), told reporters in The Hague.

'It would be logical ... to see both together facing their judges, one being allegedly the political architect ... the other one being the highest military commander,' he said.

But while highly symbolic, a joint Karadzic-Mladic trial might further slow international justice, according to a lawyer representing the 6,000-strong Mothers of Srebrenica victims group.

'I have my big doubts that they can do it,' Axel Hagedorn told reporters, indicating that those who have already testified in the Karadzic trial might be recalled to give the Mladic defence the chance to question them.

Brammertz himself recognized the challenge, as he stressed that a request for a joint trial was 'for sure a possibility (but) we are looking at a number of possible avenues.'

Mladic's first court appearance was fixed for Friday at 0800 GMT. He is expected to be asked to enter a plea, but he will also have the right to ask for a one-month delay.

Amid claims that he is too ill to stand trial, court registrar John Hocking said Mladic was undergoing 'regular' medical tests. He added that details of his condition were 'confidential.'

Hagedorn said he expected 'to wait at least six months' before the trial opened and that there was real concern that he could die before the end - in a repetition of what happened to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Addressing those concerns, Brammertz said he aimed to build a 'manageable' case, indicating he had filed an indictment cut from 15 to 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

On the run since July 1995, Mladic was arrested in Serbia on May 26 and extradited to The Hague-based ICTY on Tuesday.

Brammertz said his capture came 'very late but not too late.' He added he was 'cautiously optimistic' about the arrest of the last ICTY fugitive, who is also thought to be hiding in Serbia, former Serbian Croat leader Goran Hadzic.

Hocking said Mladic had arrived at the court's Scheveningen prison 'dressed in a suit and tie,' was 'very cooperative.' He was not being kept in isolation or under suicide watch.

Mladic has given no indication on whether he will appoint a lawyer or defend himself, a strategy that Milosevic and Karadzic used to delay court proceedings.

When detained in Serbia, Mladic reportedly asked for strawberries and classic Russian novels to be delivered to him, but Hocking said he had made no special requests to ICTY officials.

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