Mladic War Crimes Trial: Former Bosnian Serb Commander Tries Again To Delay Hearing

A Kosovo Serb woman stands by a graffiti depicting Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic in the town of Zvecan on May 4, 2012. (SASA DJORDJEVIC/AFP/GettyImages)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Ratko Mladic appealed Monday for a six-month delay in the start of his Yugoslav war crimes trial, saying delays by prosecutors in disclosing evidence could lead to a miscarriage of justice.

The motion filed by lawyers for the former Bosnian Serb military commander was his latest attempt to delay his trial. Last week he also sought a postponement, asking for the Dutch presiding judge to be replaced.

"This filing is made urgently due to the impending trial start date and the injustice and undue prejudice that would result to our client, Mr. Mladic, arising out of the late disclosure of materials if forced to proceed to trial," the motion said.

The court did not immediately react and has not yet ruled on Friday's appeal by Mladic to have Presiding Judge Alphons Orie replaced, alleging he is biased.

Defense lawyers argued that Orie is not impartial because he has sat in several other cases in which former subordinates of Mladic have been convicted and accused him of favoring prosecutors in preparations for the trial.

Orie was removed from the case of Mladic's former political master, Radovan Karadzic, in 2008 after Karadzic made a similar complaint, although the tribunal called his removal an administrative change and did not directly rule on Karadzic's complaint.

Mladic's lawyers also claimed that Orie's Dutch nationality makes him biased in charges linked to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which Dutch U.N. peacekeepers have been accused of not doing enough to prevent the slaying by Serb forces of 8,000 Muslim men.

Court spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic had no comment, saying it was up to judges to rule on the motions.

Mladic's trial is to start Wednesday. He faces 11 charges, including two counts of genocide, alleging that he orchestrated atrocities by Serb fighters throughout the 1992-95 Bosnian War.

Mladic has refused to enter pleas but denies wrongdoing. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.

The 70-year-old former general was arrested last year in Serbia after 15 years as a fugitive. He is the last major player from the Bosnian conflict to go on trial at the U.N. court.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[JoanneRM]

04:12 AM on 05/15/2012

Oh, WoW! I'm being tried for war crimes? Why didn't anyone tell me? I need a continuence to get ready for trial, like another 5 years. Is there any bail?

[Lakedaemonian]

03:25 AM on 05/18/2012

I failed to see any humor (or any sense) in your mumbling comment. What exactly are you trying to tell us?

[Y2KCockroach]

03:50 AM on 05/15/2012

Mladic should just be taken out back and shot.

He would understand that form of "justice".

[Lakedaemonian]

02:49 AM on 05/16/2012

And, I guess, you are not "Y2K" kind of cockroach? Just an ordinary, everyday kind of cockroach? Be careful out there, people are stepping on those common cockroaches everyday....

[AfisF]

02:11 AM on 05/15/2012

The Hague criminal court is a joke. Everyone agrees that no one was blameless in the Yogoslav war. But was a single KLA member convicted? Nope, I guess raping, mass murder and organ harvesting of Serbians is perfectly ok according the Hauge. How can an armed radical muslim organization possibly do anything wrong?

[JoanneRM]

04:13 AM on 05/15/2012

Why do you think the Libyans took care of the problem themselves?

[caseyjosh]

08:00 AM on 05/15/2012

Better check your sources because these KLA members were convicted: Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Bala, Isak Musliu, Ramush Haradinaj for crimes against the Serbs

[Lakedaemonian]

03:52 AM on 05/18/2012

Ramus Hardinaj is a murderous animal from different war and different political comedy staged mostly by US Clinton administration. Ramush Haradinaj (just to mention only that illiterate, murderous criminal) was not "convicted" for his role in Kosovo war, because there were no living witnesses left. Besides, together with another murderous criminal and drug dealer Tachi (called "Snake") he was a "darling" of CIA and State Department. All witnesses were conveniently killed, all of them, before the end of his "trial" in that politically motivated comedy court in the Hague...Since all that was obvious even to those incompetent comedians and clowns in that court who call themselves "judges", he was invited back for another trial... just to be released again "temporarily". I guess, they are few more living witnesses for him to take care of....

[Admir Fidahic]

12:46 AM on 05/15/2012

This guy should have been killed just like Osama Bin Laden and thrown into the Ocean. Personally what it would do is perform the same torture on him like he inflicted on others. But, to give this guy a trial, is a joke. This Hague criminal court provides better Service then any hotel. And this is the place where worst of humanity lives. For him its like a Superstar retirement home. What a Joke !!!

[robodawa]

10:03 PM on 05/14/2012

At Screbenica the French cut a deal with Ratko. Then the Dutch shamed themselves by not fighting like tigers against Mladic and his death squads. Now we have this psycho laughing at the world again by playing the 'Pity me, I'm the victim' card. I hope they don't give him a minute more.

[Lakedaemonian]

01:57 AM on 05/15/2012

How the f...ck do you know all this? Been there? Participated? And if you do write a nonsensical comment, please use at least a bit of common sense, don't re-write and repeat senselessly mass-news scripts. Watching TV all day doesn't necessarily give you enough common sense to write a comment about things you neither understand nor have the slightest idea about.

[JoanneRM]

04:24 AM on 05/15/2012

Where were you? It was covered on all the foreign radio stations. Our local ABC radio station sent people there to cover it. It was on CNN and the BBC. Where were you? It was in all the papers. How could you not know about the Dutch? it was disgraceful. They were sent home for letting the killers into where the victims were. Had them all penned up for them and everything. Yes, a lot of it was on television, but it was all over the place; you had to be trying to miss it. I guess you were trying Lakedaemonian.

[donnieb]

09:39 PM on 05/14/2012

what a fake court. the guy killed children by knife and they know it.

[Lakedaemonian]

02:37 AM on 05/17/2012

"...the guy...killed...children... by (?) knife"? Ignorance is fine, arrogance is ok, it happens. But being arrogant, ignorant, uninformed and in total dark at the same time is something else. Your comment says you are all of the above.....You must change the brand of alcohol and (or) drugs you are using immediately, because the ones you are using now are not good for your thought process. Either that, or try "thinking" sometimes. Thinking doesn't hurt at all, you should try sometimes.....

[Liban CZ]

06:27 PM on 05/14/2012

Another person that should be tried, is President Clinton, he was part of this.
Again, America was not invited for this war.

[ca va pas non]

07:18 PM on 05/14/2012

thank you president clinton, thank you for stopping the massacre and genocide against muslims

[homer68]

07:44 PM on 05/14/2012

I agree. Muslims are are the core of everything peacfull in the world. It's those crazy Buddist that are committing all the world wide terrorism today.