Eurasia Press & News
(Reuters) – Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been extradited to The Hague to face charges of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia over his actions during the 1992-95 Bosnia war.
Following are details of the procedures he now faces.
– Karadzic will be held at a United Nations detention unit in Scheveningen, on the North Sea coast.
– He will go through an medical examination and answer questions about his plans for legal representation.
– He will have a single cell with a bathroom and an office corner. Because he wants to conduct his own defense, he is likely to be allowed use of a separate office with a computer and Internet access. The late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic received similar treatment after waiving the right to a lawyer.
– There are 37 detainees in custody indicted for their role in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Released inmates say the ethnic rivalries that drove them to fratricide have faded within the walls of the prison, and most indictees socialize, cook together, play sport and board games and celebrate religious holidays.
– His first appearance in court is expected to be scheduled within a few days of his arrival. Usually that is when the indictment is read. Karadzic can ask that only the charges, effectively a shorter summary of the indictment, are read, or that the indictment is not read at all.
– He will be asked to enter a plea. If he refuses to enter a plea, proceedings will be adjourned and he will have 30 days to consider before he is again asked to enter a plea. If he refuses to plea then, a plea of ‘not guilty’ will be entered for him.
– It is hard to predict how long his trial would last. Some cases conclude within a few months, but most take between one and two years. Milosevic’s trial had gone into its fifth year when he died in custody in March 2006.
