JURIST Contributing Editor David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law, former Chief Prosecutor for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, says that the declaration by recently-arrested Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic that he will defend himself before the ICTY at The Hague is an historically-predictable bid to control, play up and even disrupt the proceedings under the guise of exercising his legal right to defend himself.... A few days after his arrest in Serbia, Radovan Karadzic declared that he would defend himself before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia against his indictment related to the horrors he allegedly helped perpetrate in the Balkans. Thus begins an all too familiar pattern in the trial of yet another faction leader for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. I recall Hinga Norman, leader of the Sierra Leone’s Civil Defense Forces, in June of 2004, loudly declaring he was firing his defense counsel and defending himself just after I gave my opening statement in the joint criminal trial of Norman and his two henchmen. Also, in June of 2007, Charles Taylor refused to come out of his cell on the day his trial opened wanting to represent himself. Saddam Hussein railed at the Iraqi High Tribunal as he defended himself against various international and domestic crimes. And of course there is Slobodan Milosevic, who defended himself in a years-long and drawn out spe ...
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JURIST Contributing Editor David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law, former Chief Prosecutor for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, says that the declaration by recently-arrested Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic that he will defend himself before the ICTY at The Hague is an historically-predictable bid to control, play up and even disrupt the proceedings under the guise of exercising his legal right to defend himself.... A few days after his arrest in Serbia, Radovan Karadzic declared that he would defend himself before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia against his indictment related to the horrors he allegedly helped perpetrate in the Balkans. Thus begins an all too familiar pattern in the trial of yet another faction leader for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. I recall Hinga Norman, leader of the Sierra Leone’s Civil Defense Forces, in June of 2004, loudly declaring he was firing his defense counsel and defending himself just after I gave my opening statement in the joint criminal trial of Norman and his two henchmen. Also, in June of 2007, Charles Taylor refused to come out of his cell on the day his trial opened wanting to represent himself. Saddam Hussein railed at the Iraqi High Tribunal as he defended himself against various international and domestic crimes. And of course there is Slobodan Milosevic, who defended himself in a years-long and drawn out spe ...