By Janet Stobart, Los Angeles Times –
LONDON — The war crimes trial of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader during the Balkans war of the 1990s, was suspended Thursday after the judge declared that the prosecution had failed to hand over evidence to the defense.
Presiding Judge Alfons Orie told the court in The Hague, Netherlands, that “in light of the prosecution’s significant disclosure errors … the chamber hereby informs the parties that it has decided to suspend the start of the presentation of evidence.”
He said the court would review “the scope and the full impact of this error” and would announce a restart date for the 2-day-old trial “as soon as possible.”
The ruling came after Peter McCloskey, speaking for the prosecution, wound up his opening statement before the International Criminal Tribunal. He had outlined what prosecutors say are the crimes that Mladic, as commander of the Bosnian Serb army, committed during the 1992-95 fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina that accompanied the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
The defense had requested a six-month delay over the issue. In their motion, attorneys Branko Lukic and Miodrag Stojanovic complained that several groups of documents — some related to the trial of Mladic ally Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serbs’ political leader during the war — were unavailable to them until late April and others were still missing.
“The defense has been unduly deprived of access to the key documents that the prosecution intends to present in their case against Mr. Mladic for many months,” they wrote.
Prosecutors McCloskey and Dermot Groome conceded in a responding statement that not all of the documents relating to the Karadzic case had been revealed to the defense, citing oversights and the sheer volume of material that 20 aides had been sifting through. “To date over 1.4 million pages contained in over 80,000 documents have been the subject of review,” they said.
Mladic faces 11 charges of war crimes, including genocide, murder, persecution, terrorism and hostage taking. The charges stem in part from the massacre in Srebrenica, where he and his troops are accused of murdering about 8,000 men and boys after taking over the town. The charges also are linked to the 3 1/2-year siege of Sarajevo, during which his troops continuously bombarded with mortar and sniper fire.
He denies the charges, calling them “monstrous,” but has refused to enter a plea. A plea of not guilty has been entered on his behalf.
