Richard Harvey has been appointed as defence lawyer of Radovan Karadzic

Judge O-gon Kwon’s Trial Chamber decided that English lawyer Richard Harvey should remain Karadzic’s ‘standby counsel’ during the defense case to avoid the risk of unnecessary delays in the course of the trial that may be caused by the obstructions on the part of the accused.

Harvey was appointed standby counsel in November 2009, after Karadzic, who is representing himself, refused to attend the opening statement of the prosecution. Karadzic thus ‘substantially and persistently obstructed the proper and expeditious conduct of the trial’.After the prosecution rested its case, the Trial Chamber asked the parties in early May 2012 to submit their positions on whether the continued involvement of the standby counsel is required.

In his response, Karadzic said that the continued engagement of the standby counsel was unnecessary because he ‘intends to comply with all the orders of the Trial Chamber as he has done throughout the prosecution’s case’. The prosecution supported the continued involvement of the standby counsel until the end of the trial because there was ‘a risk that Karadzic may try again to obstruct the trial’. Richard Harvey was of the same opinion.

The beginning of the defense case at the trial of Radovan Karadzic for genocide and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina is slated to begin 16 October 2012.

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