Court Says Karadzic's Standby Lawyer to Remain Bench rejects defendants argument that counsel is no longer needed.

By Rachel Irwin - International Justice - ICTY TRI Issue 747, 22 Jun 12 Judges at the Hague have rejected a request by wartime Bosnian Serb president Ra dovan Karadzic to remove his standby defence lawyer as his trial enters the defe nce stage. Karadzic, who represents himself in court, had asked that standby lawyer Richard Harvey be removed from the case, arguing that his presence was no longer necess ary. Judges initially assigned Harvey to the case in November 2009 after Karadzic boy cotted the opening of his trial. The appointment led to several months delay in p roceedings, as Harvey needed time to prepare. In a filing on May 7, 2012, Karadzic said he planned to cooperate fully with the court, adding that it was unnecessary to continue Harveys mandate. Karadzic stated that he fully intends to comply with all the orders and direction s of the trial chamber, as he has done throughout the prosecutions case. The prosecution, however, contended that Harvey should stay on, and said that af ter the lawyers initial appointment Karadzic had become more cooperative. Following his objection to the timing of the start of the trial [in October 2009] , the accused only began attending and participating in the prosecutions evidence phase of the trial once standby counsel was in place, the prosecution stated. The judges initially appointed Harvey because of Karadzics boycott, and the trial was subsequently adjourned from November 2009 to March 2010. Responding to Karadzics latest request, the prosecution argued that it was possib le he might pursue similar tactics in his defence case, thus creating the risk of f urther delays and adjournments. In their June 21 decision, the judges stated that Harveys role in the proceedings remained unchanged. The standby counsel must maintain a state of readiness to take f the case at any time, and this will require him to develop a nd conduct some investigations on his own so that, if he should present the accuseds interests, the proceedings would not need e bench wrote. over the conduct o defence strategy a be ordered to re to be adjourned, th

The accused is due to begin presenting his defence case in October. Prosecutors allege that Karadzic, who was president of the self-declared Republi ka Srpska from 1992 to 1996, is responsible for crimes of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer which contributed to achieving the o bjective of the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bos nian Serb-claimed territory. He is also accused of planning and overseeing the 44-month siege of Sarajevo tha t left nearly 12,000 people dead, as well as the massacre of more than 7,000 men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade in July 2008 after 13 years on the run. The pr osecution rested its case in May, after two years of witness testimony. Rachel Irwin is an IWPR senior reporter in The Hague.