Milosevic snubs British defence lawyers
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is refusing to co-operate with two British lawyers appointed to defend him before the United Nations war crimes tribunal – even as they prepare to call the first witness in his defence case.
Smilja Avramov, a retired Serbian international law professor, was due to testify at the tribunal at The Hague, in the Netherlands, today, said Zdenko Tomanovic, one of Milosevic’s legal aides.
Avramov, a Serbian ultra-nationalist, had written in the mid-1990s that the UN Security Council had no legal authority to try Milosevic. She will be questioned by Milosevic’s newly-assigned lawyers, Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins, court spokesman Jim Landale said.
Judges appointed the lawyers against Milosevic’s will last Thursday, citing potential further delays in the landmark proceedings due to his heart trouble.
Milosevic, who faces 66 counts of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, rejects the tribunals’ jurisdiction and has said he will appeal against the decision.
“Mr Milosevic will not co-operate with the appointed counsel,” Tomanovic told The Associated Press. Milosevic, 63, refused yesterday to meet the appointed lawyers, he said.
The trial, which began in February 2002, has been set back by at least six months due to Milosevic’s high blood pressure. He has, nonetheless, insisted on preparing his own defence and spent months researching and interviewing witnesses from his UN detention cell.
He spent around five hours presenting his opening statement last week, a moment his legal aides said he had waited for since being transferred to the Netherlands in 2001.
Judges had been wary of appearing to infringe on Milosevic’s right to defend himself, for fear of giving ammunition to opponents of the tribunal who call the proceedings a show trial.
Prosecutors had asked the court from the beginning to impose a lawyer on Milosevic, fearing he would use court time to address his followers back home in Serbia.
The judges finally were swayed by reports from two cardiologists warning that the defendant’s life would be at risk if he continued representing himself in court. His legal aides insist he is fit enough to do the job.
Kay and Higgins, until now monitors or ”friends of the court” overseeing the fairness of the proceedings, will have a tough task without their client’s co-operation. It is also unclear if the witnesses Milosevic had intended to call will still be willing to testify.
The two defence lawyers themselves argued throughout the trial that Milosevic should have the right to defend himself, even to the detriment of his health. Ironically, they may now have to file an appeal for Milosevic against their appointment.
Trial watcher Judith Armatta of the Coalition for International Justice said the lawyers have been given far-reaching powers to oversee Milosevic’s case and that the defendant will have a small role, asking witnesses questions only after they have been addressed by the lawyers.
