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Serbia/UN
Karadzic appeals against transfer to international court, say lawyers
Article published on the 2008-07-26 Latest update 2008-07-26 12:21 TU
Waiting for Karadzic? A cell at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia Detention Unit in The Hague
(Photo: Reuters/ICTY)
Lawyers acting for former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic say that they have posted an appeal against his transfer to the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague. They say they did so at the last possible moment and using standard mail so as to keep the public and the war crimes court in Serbia in the dark over their intentions for as long as possible.
"Depriving the public of information about [the appeal] is part of the defence strategy," lawyer Svetozar Vujacic told the Tanjug news agency.
And he told Politika newspaper that the appeal was posted by mail just before an overnight deadline expired, "so that it cannot be immediately forwarded to the war crimes court" in Serbia.
Dragan Dabic, whose identity was assumed by Karadzic while he was on the run, poses in front of his house in the Serbian town of Ruma 25 July, 2008.
(Photo: Reuters)
Once it receives the appeal, the three-judge panel will have three days to decide on its merits before the Justice Ministry must issue the final order for transfer.
Belgrade journalist Milos Vasic predicts that the judges will not be "very much impressed" by an appeal.
Even if it is not successful, it could allow time for his Bosnia-based family, including his wife Ljiljana and daughter Sonja, time to get back travel papers which were confiscated earlier and see him before he goes.
Austrian newspapers report that Karadzic lived in Vienna for several months between June 2006 and the end of 2007, while police admit that they questioned a man who resembled him in connection with a murder in May 2007.
The man was a healer, which has been Karadzic's profession while in hiding, and was travelling under a Croat passport in the name of Peter Glumac. Glumac means actor in the Serb and Croat languages.
There are also reports that Karadzic travelled to Italy to treat Serb patients with what he claimed was "human quantum energy".
