PHOTO: Karadzic Waives Right to Attorney

The trial should have continued on August 28, but Karadzic asked to move the date to August 29.

Radovan Karadzic is in the courtroom number one of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to hear the charges pending on him and to enter plea before Judge Alphons Orie.  

Karadzic is indicted on eleven counts, including crimes of genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide.

Karadzic is not obliged to enter a plea, so he can delay the trial for a month, when he will no longer have the option not to plea guilty or not guilty.

Radovan Karadzic waived his right to an attorney and will defend himself. The court is now reading out the charges.

Radovan Karadzic waived his right to an attorney and will defend himself. 

- With all the respect for your person, I will defend myself before The Hague Tribunal, as I would defend myself from a natural disaster – said Karadzic. 

The judge answered him that clearly there are doubts in the regularity of the Tribunal, and that everything Karadzic considers illegal in the trial, has to be included in his requests.

“Everybody knows where Karadzic is”

The Judge read him the summary of the indictment for genocide, for the shelling Sarajevo, for the crimes that Bosnian Serbs committed under his command.

When asked whether he needed to inform someone that he was in The Hague, Karadzic laughing said there is no person in the world who does not know where he presently is.

He waived the right to hear the entire indictment because, he said, he does not want others to read them for him, but he wants to read them on his own and get ready for the new counts of the indictment against him before he enters a plea.

- I am not interested in others reading me the indictment, but I want to read it on my own and get ready for new counts of the indictment – said Karadzic.

The trial should have continued on August 28, but Karadzic asked to move the date to August 29.

The Prosecution announced they hope to have all necessary documentation for the beginning of the trial by that time.