Karadzic refuses to enter plea at war crimes hearing

Judge Iain Bonomy, presiding over the hearing by the U.N. Yugoslav tribunal, entered not guilty pleas on Karadzic's behalf to 11 charges filed against him, including genocide and crimes against humanity, not least, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

 

"I will not plead, in line with my standpoint as regards to this court," Karadzic said when Bonomy asked for his plea to a count of genocide.

 

"This court is representing itself falsely as a court of the international community, whereas it is in fact a court of NATO whose aim is to liquidate me," he said moments earlier.

 

Six weeks after Karadzic's sensational arrest, on the eve of his second appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a legal advisor had said the war-time Bosnian Serb political leader planned to remain silent at the plea hearing.

 

The advisor, Goran Petronijevic, was quoted by Serbia’s RTS state television as saying that Karadzic would not enter a plea because he is waiting for prosecutors to update their original indictment.

 

Experts have said they expect Karadzic to use many of the same delay tactics employed by late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic whose own ICTY trial ended after four years with his death in March 2006.

 

Karadzic, who like Milosevic has signaled his intention to conduct his own defense, "will not enter his plea to the indictment until the new one, which he will be judged upon, is finished," Petronijevic was quoted as saying.

 

Ahead of Karadzic’s first appearance before The Hague-based tribunal last month, chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said his office had been reviewing the indictment, which had not been updated since 2000.

 

"We will ensure that it reflects the current case law, facts already established by the court and evidence collected over the past eight years," Brammertz said at the time.

 

Karadzic, dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia" by some media, was arrested six weeks ago on a Belgrade bus posing as a doctor of alternative medicine called Dragan Dabic -- complete with large glasses and big white beard.

 

After more than a decade on the run he was finally transferred to The Hague last month to answer 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity brought against him by ICTY prosecutors

 

He stands accused of commanding the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 dead, and of ordering the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the U.N.-protected area of Srebrenica.

 

If he pleads "not guilty" a trial is not expected to start for months. In the unlikely event that he pleads "guilty" proceedings would move straight to sentencing. If he refuses to reply, the judge is expected to automatically register him as having pleaded "not guilty".

 

Karadzic made his first appearance at The Hague tribunal on July 31.Â

 

Shorn of the beard and long hair used to disguise himself as Dabic, he was again recognizable as the man who became one of the most reviled figures of the 1992-95 Bosnia war -- though older, thinner and more pale.

 

In his submissions to the court so far, Karadzic has challenged the legality of his trial and urged the UN court to order evidence from former U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke about an alleged secret deal.

 

Declining to enter a plea immediately, he claimed Holbrooke had promised him at the end of Bosnia’s bloody war that he would not face prosecution if he disappeared from the public eye.

 

But Holbrooke, the architect of the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war, denied cutting such a deal and described Karadzic as the "intellectual architect" behind an ideology of racial hatred in former Yugoslavia.

 

"Of all the evil men of the Balkans, he is the worst," he said.

 

If convicted, Karadzic faces life imprisonment. His ally, former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, 66, remains on the run, as does Goran Hadzic, a 49-year-old former rebel leader wanted for Croatian war crimes.

 

The extent of Serbia’s cooperation with the ICTY is a key condition for sealing closer ties with the European Union.