Radovan Karadzic in the courtroom

At half-time of his trial, Radovan Karadzic has submitted a motion to the Trial Chamber asking the judges to order the prosecution to amend the indictment pursuant to Rule 54 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. Karadzic wants the prosecution to delete from the indictment all incidents it has failed to prove in the first part of the trial and which could therefore not support a conviction. In its response to the motion, the prosecution contends this is ‘the latest in the series of Karadzic’s attempts to reduce the scope of the indictment’. Consequently, the prosecution has urged the judges to dismiss the motion.

By demanding that some paragraphs be deleted from the indictment, Karadzic is in fact trying to ‘circumvent’ Rule 98, the prosecution claims. The rule allows the accused to ask the judges to acquit him on the ‘counts’ that have not been proven sufficiently after the prosecution has rested its case. It is not up to the prosecution to analyze ‘each incident’ in the light of the presented evidence: it should merely respond to any arguments the accused may make about the lack of evidence on particular counts in the indictment.

In its brief, the prosecution notes that Karadzic ‘has ignored’ the fact that the Trial Chamber has suggested to the prosecution earlier to consider dropping some charges or incidents considered to be unproven. The prosecution has established that the indictment does not contain any charges or incidents that have not been proven sufficiently to support a conviction.

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