"Karadžić must be allowed to defend self"
Geoffrey Nice, the prosecutor in the Slobodan Milošević case, says Radovan Karadžić must be allowed to defend himself.
Friday, 25.07.2008.
09:33
Geoffrey Nice, the prosecutor in the Slobodan Milosevic case, says Radovan Karadzic must be allowed to defend himself. “If Karadzic decides to defend himself, that’s a right he has according to the statute. The court will decide how to allow him to use that right,“ Nice told the BBC. "Karadzic must be allowed to defend self" Tribunal spokeswoman Olga Kavran says, however, that the Hague “prosecution in this type of case always objects to the accused defending himself, as these cases are very complex“. “A lot of evidence is put forward, the majority written documents, while the trial itself is a combination of procedures of ordinary and civil law, and lawyers have to know both areas,“ Kavran explained. Moreover, she said, the prosecution had always thus far supported the idea that it was in the best interests of justice that the accused should have expert legal assistance. Nice points out that in the Milosevic case the judges were extremely careful, which, in his opinion, was very wise, and allowed him to defend himself in the most basic manner, by letting him ask questions for as long as he liked and about what he liked, while always being within a pre-determined time frame. “For that reason, you got the impression, perhaps falsely, that he was using the trial to put forward his own political views. I’m not sure he could have been constrained in doing so, as the judges simply decided not to limit his rights at any stage,” says the lawyer. He adds, however, that the experience of that trial, and others, such as that of Vojislav Seselj, could lead the judges to “deciding to compel Karadzic to take a lawyer, if he oversteps the mark during his defense.“ “And then, he might realize that he’s bitten off more than he can chew. So, despite what he’s saying now, it could easily happen that in defending himself, he abides by the rules,“ Nice told the BBC. Geoffrey Nice (FoNet, archive)
"Karadžić must be allowed to defend self"
Tribunal spokeswoman Olga Kavran says, however, that the Hague “prosecution in this type of case always objects to the accused defending himself, as these cases are very complex“.“A lot of evidence is put forward, the majority written documents, while the trial itself is a combination of procedures of ordinary and civil law, and lawyers have to know both areas,“ Kavran explained.
Moreover, she said, the prosecution had always thus far supported the idea that it was in the best interests of justice that the accused should have expert legal assistance.
Nice points out that in the Milošević case the judges were extremely careful, which, in his opinion, was very wise, and allowed him to defend himself in the most basic manner, by letting him ask questions for as long as he liked and about what he liked, while always being within a pre-determined time frame.
“For that reason, you got the impression, perhaps falsely, that he was using the trial to put forward his own political views. I’m not sure he could have been constrained in doing so, as the judges simply decided not to limit his rights at any stage,” says the lawyer.
He adds, however, that the experience of that trial, and others, such as that of Vojislav Šešelj, could lead the judges to “deciding to compel Karadžić to take a lawyer, if he oversteps the mark during his defense.“
“And then, he might realize that he’s bitten off more than he can chew. So, despite what he’s saying now, it could easily happen that in defending himself, he abides by the rules,“ Nice told the BBC.
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