A London-based barrister has been named to represent former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at his trial for war crimes and genocide, the UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said on Friday. The appointment of Richard Harvey follows a November 5 order in which the tribunal said legal counsel would be appointed to Karadzic, who has been representing himself and boycotting the start of his trial as part of his efforts to gain more preparation time.
The trial against Karadzic, who has denied all 11 war crimes charges stemming from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including two of genocide, was adjourned earlier this month until March 2010 to give his new defence counsel time to prepare. Karadzic has since indicated in court documents he intends to appeal against the ruling to appoint counsel. Karadzic was indicted over episodes including the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo that began in 1992 and the genocide of about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
An estimated 100,000 people died in the Bosnian war as the former Yugoslavia was torn apart in the 1990s. The fighting between Serbs, Croats and Muslims was the worst in Europe since World War Two. Harvey has previously served as defence counsel for two members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Haradin Bala and Lahi Brahimaj, in two separate cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Bala was convicted to 13 years and Brahimaj to six years in prison for crimes in Kosovo in 1998.
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