JURIST - Paper Chase: Karadzic requests new judges for ICTY war crimes trial

[JURIST] Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] has moved to replace the judges [order designating judges, PDF] at his upcoming war crimes trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], according to documents released on Tuesday. Karadzic argues that presiding Judge Alphons Orie [DPA profile] is biased against him because he has overseen ICTY cases brought against various other former Bosnian Serb leaders and would want to maintain their line of reasoning. As an example of these past cases, he cited the prosecution of former Bosnian Serb parliamentary leader Momcilo Krajisnik [ICTY backgrounder], who was sentenced [judgment, PDF; JURIST report] to 27 years' imprisonment in 2006 for various war crimes committed during the Bosnian war. Karadzic has asked for the removal of the other judges assigned to his case for similar reasons. Reuters has more.

Karadzic, who has been indicted [text] on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, was arrested [JURIST report] in Serbia in July after evading capture for nearly 13 years. Later that month, Serbian authorities transferred [press release] Karadzic to the custody of the ICTY. Karadzic was originally indicted [text] by the ICTY prosecutor in 1995, but had been in hiding under an assumed identity as an alternative medicine practitioner [BBC report] until his arrest. He is accused of involvement in the Srebrenica [JURIST news archive] massacre and other war crimes against Bosnian Muslims and Croats during ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

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