Following a status conference on Tuesday 28 October at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the proceedings against Radovan Karadžić have been further delayed with the provisional date of 20 January 2009 set for the next hearing.

The accused—who has elected to represent himself before the Tribunal—stated on Tuesday that he was “not prepared for this conference” having only received a Serbian translation of the recently-amended indictment against him on Monday. “I did not even have time to study it”, Karadžić told the Tribunal.

The revised indictment against the former Bosnian Serb leader was made available on 22 September, but has yet to be confirmed by the Trial Chamber. This Proposed Second Amended Indictment reduces the number of charges against Karadžić from 41 to 27.

“Extremely disappointed” — Judge Bonomy

While Radovan Karadžić complained that he was still awaiting some 60 pages of supporting evidence to the indictment to be translated into Serbian and that he was not able to adequately prepare his defence, the Pre-Trial Judge, Iain Bonomy, expressed his frustration at the continuing delays in the case.

Judge Bonomy chastised both the Prosecution and Karadžić for not being adequately prepared for the hearing. In responding to the Accused’s complaints that he was being denied sufficient time and resources to conduct his defence the Judge stated:

“It's your own choice, as you know very well, that you should represent yourself and I'm afraid that carries particular problems which you have been told about repeatedly.”

Additionally, Judge Bonomy stated that he was “extremely disappointed” about the slow progress of proceedings stating that little headway had been made since the announcement of Karadžić’s arrest on 21 July.

The Trial Chamber’s decision on the confirmation of the new indictment is expected in the coming weeks.

Radovan Karadžić