Update on Karadzic - ICC Trial

Update on Karadzic since July 2008: The Failure of Justice

Karadzic was brought before the International Criminal Court and began a tirade of defenses and excuses to delay the process. He claimed a conspiracy was unfolding against him and refused to plead either guilty or not so the court decided to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf. To all 11 charges.

On October 13, 2008 BBC stated in a report that Karadzic's not guilty plea granting immunity to his charges was to be denied. His defense needed to "prepare" and he was granted a continuance of his trial to the 26th of October.

The trial stopped 15 minutes after it began when Karadzic simply boycott the start of the trial by not appearing. He apparently was representing himself at this time. My question to the court, why the heck was he allowed to "not appear" when he should have been in hand-cuffs led directly from a jail cell to the jail court. Either way, the judge decided to suspend the hearing until the prosecution could begin its opening statement later that week.

On November 5, 2009, the court provided an attorney, or rather required it and again moved his his trial to be held on March 1st, 2010.

On November 26, 2009, Karadžić filed a Motion stating the legal validity and legitimacy of the tribunal was essentially falsified and the prosecution responded by stating they had already proved validity and jurisdiction in this matter. The Judge agreed wiht the prosecution and denied Karadzic's motion.

At this time, the failure of the ICC is that this has been allowed to continue wihtout resolution. There have been numerous additional delays including a motion to replace the judge due to unfair biases against the defendant. Clearly, we still have work to do in prosecution of crimes against humanity, genocide and violations of the Geneva Convention.


PRIOR News Update: As of July 2008.

Karadzic, the Serbian leader accused of organizing crimes against humanity and genocide most notably against the 8,000 men and boys who lives were exterminated in the Balkans. -- This is the proof that justice can prevail, giving hope and ending impunity.

" Radovan Karadzic personified impunity for more than a
decade, but his efforts to run the clock on justice have failed.
This arrest offers hope to the victims of the horrific crimes
that occurred there. "

Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program
(Source: HRW.org)