Milosevic lawyers ‘play for time’
As Yugoslavia stepped up moves to extradite Slobodan Milosevic to the United Nations war crimes tribunal, the former president’s defence lawyers manoeuvred for time today, filing a request that two Belgrade District Court judges and the prosecutor be dismissed from the case.
The extradition order and international war crimes indictment were to have been read to Milosevic in the presence of his defence team at the Central Prison in the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade.
But within minutes of the hearing, Milosevic’s lawyers announced their request.
It will buy them time until the Supreme Court in Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic, rules on their motion. A ruling must be made within 24 hours.
‘‘We have filed a demand for the exclusion of the investigative judge of the Belgrade district court, its chief magistrate and the district prosecutor,’’ said Zdenko Tomanovic, a Milosevic lawyer.
The former president’s team did not elaborate on their grievances regarding the district court. Under Yugoslav law, such a motion by the defence does not require an explanation.
The court is likely to reject the motion, and the hearing, intended to allow Milosevic to respond to the indictment and extradition order, would be rescheduled.
Relaying Milosevic’s defiant mood after the hearing was put off, Toma Fila, head of the defence team, said: ‘‘The man is fighting as best he can.’’
Milosevic, in prison since April 1 while allegations of abuse of power and corruption are investigated, is sought by the UN tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged involvement in atrocities committed in Kosovo during the crackdown on the province’s ethnic Albanian population.
The crackdown ended two years ago, after NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign.
If extradited, Milosevic would be the first former head of state to face a war crimes trial in front of the UN tribunal, established in 1992.
