Judges at Slobodan Milosevic’s war crimes trial on Monday ordered a ”radical review” of the hearing after the defendant’s poor health forced a fresh postponement of a case that has already dragged on for more than two years.
Determined not to allow the trial to founder, United Nations judges at the tribunal in The Hague will today issue a ruling which could demand that the former Yugoslav leader be represented by a lawyer.
So far he has defended himself against charges of genocide. The court may also beam its proceedings live into Milosevic’s prison cell so he is not required to be in the dock every day.
Milosevic had been scheduled to finally start his defence on Monday but a cardiologist’s report showed him to be suffering from high blood pressure and in need of rest.
”The time has come for a radical review of the trial process in the light of the health problems of the accused, which are clearly chronic and recurrent,” said Judge Patrick Robinson before adjourning the short hearing.
Legal sources said it was highly unlikely that the judges will rule that the Milosevic trial — the biggest such case since Hitler’s henchmen faced justice at Nuremberg — cannot continue on health grounds.
Milosevic (62) looked well enough on Monday, though slightly flushed, and was as combative as ever, protesting that he had been brought to court despite a doctor’s recommendation that he should be resting.
Sitting in the dock in his trademark blue suit and red tie, he protested that his medical report had been read out, and added: ”What’s happening here is nothing to do with the law at all, but is in the realm of politics and the media.”
He forcefully rejected calls for measures to accelerate the proceedings.
Geoffrey Nice, the UN prosecutor, said counsel appointed by the court should be imposed on Milosevic, himself a trained lawyer who has represented himself since the trial began in February 2002.
Nice said the workload of researching witnesses and preparing cross-examinations was contributing to the stress levels, blood pressure and heart problems detailed in a cardiologist’s report commissioned by the court. Another possibility for reducing Milosevic’s workload was the installation of a live video link between the prisoner’s cell at the nearby UN detention centre and the tribunal building.
Milosevic insisted that both these options were ”out of the question” and that he would personally be in court to cross-examine witnesses.
”Any other procedure would put me in an even more unequal position than I am in now,” he added.
The court can appoint a so-called ”standby lawyer” to represent a defendant without his agreement, as it has done with Vojislav Seslj, a Serb nationalist who is also defending himself on war crimes charges.
Stephen Kay, a British barrister and ”friend of the court” appointed to ensure Milosevic gets a fair trial, said there was no doubt that the former president’s health had deteriorated. ”It may well be that the court is at a stage now of having to consider … his very fitness to stand trial at all,” he said.
Nice retorted that the case must be tried and that Milosevic himself wanted to stand trial.
The 66 charges against him arise from the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo between 1991 and 1999.
As well as genocide — notoriously hard to prove — he is also accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The sense that the trial has been dragging on interminably was heightened last week by the death of Richard May, the British judge who presided at the start until he stepped down in February because of ill-health. He was replaced by Judge Robinson, a Jamaican.
Milosevic has said he wants to call as witnesses the former US president Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and other American and British ministers.
The trial was due to have resumed with a long opening statement by Milosevic after a four-month break since the prosecution case ended, having called nearly 300 witnesses.
The genocide charge he faces arises from the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, in which more than 7 000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed by Serb forces.
Attention on the next stage of the marathon case has been heightened by the coincidence that Saddam Hussein is facing a long trial.
Saddam is thought likely to want to show his judges how he was backed by the US and Britain when he launched his eight-year war against neighbouring Iran in 1980. – Guardian Unlimited Â