New Status Conference In Karadzic Case

“Due to the fact that the Defence team has not been formed”, Radovan Karadzic said he cannot respond to the Hague Prosecution’s proposal to reinstate the Susica incident into the indictment.

At a status conference the Hague Tribunal Chamber ordered Radovan Karadzic to respond to the Hague Prosecution’s motion requesting to reinstate into the indictment the incident which refers to the murder of 140 people in the Susica detention camp in Vlasenica, by Wednesday, February 25.

Karadzic said that over the past days he has “received many documents”, which he had not been able to review “due to lack of capacity”, adding that he is not sure whether “the revised indictment is now in force and whether I should enter my plea to it”.

Judge Iain Bonomy explained to Karadzic that he was “not expected to enter his plea, but to respond to the Prosecution’s motion, requesting revision of the indictment”.

Bonomy said that he would try to schedule another status conference “in about two weeks’ time” in order to discuss and resolve this issue.

Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, RS, and General Commander of the RS Armed Forces, is charged with genocide committed in 10 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Srebrenica, as well as many other crimes committed in 27 municipalities.

After the Court rendered a decision on February 17, partially accepting the indictment against Karadzic and ordering removal of certain “incidents”, including one involving the murder of 140 detainees in Susica
detention camp, due to lack of evidence, the Prosecution asked for more time to provide the necessary evidence, because there had been “a clerical mistake”.

At the status conference Karadzic responded by saying that “there is no way I will accommodate the Prosecution’s mistakes”, adding that he would submit his response by the set deadline, also expressing “dissatisfaction due to the tight deadline”.

At this status conference the Hague Court ordered the Prosecution to prepare a pre-trial submission, containing “an index that will be followed during the course of the trial thus helping the Chamber in reviewing the large quantity of materials”.