Poor Health Of Serb Ex-Security Chief Delays Trial

The court`s appeals chamber granted a request from Stanisic to postpone proceedings and overturned an earlier ruling.

The trial of former Serbian intelligence chief Jovica Stanisic has been adjourned for at least three months due to his ill health, the U.N. war crimes tribunal said on Friday.

The court's appeals chamber granted a request from Stanisic to postpone proceedings and overturned an earlier ruling that he was fit to stand trial and could follow via a video-link set up in the tribunal's detention unit.

The much-delayed trial opened last month. Stanisic, head of the secret service of late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and his co-defendant Franko Simatovic, are accused of arming and training militias who committed atrocities against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.

Stanisic, who suffers from osteoporosis, kidney stones and depression, had a fundamental right to be present in court, the appeals chamber found.