AMSTERDAM, 7 July 2004 — Judges declared Slobodan Milosevic fit enough yesterday for his much-delayed war crimes trial to proceed but warned they might have to impose a defense lawyer on the ailing former Yugoslav president.
“There is no evidence that the accused is not fit to stand trial at all, but there is evidence that the health of the accused is such that he may not be fit to continue to represent himself,” the judges wrote in a statement.
Milosevic, who has been defending himself in a court he does not recognize, had been expected to launch his defense on Monday in a case widely regarded as Europe’s biggest war crimes trial since top Nazis were tried at Nuremberg after World War II.
But new concerns about his high blood pressure and heart problems forced yet another delay to the case that started in February 2002, with a lawyer appointed to ensure Milosevic gets a fair trial questioning whether the case could continue.
The trial judges called yesterday for a cardiologist to examine the 62-year-old accused to determine if he was fit enough to continue to conduct his own defense and said the case would resume on July 14, subject to the state of his health. Milosevic, who had been due to start his defense case after a lengthy prosecution accusing him of genocide and other crimes during the 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia, said on Monday he would never agree to the imposition of a defense counsel.
Vladimir Krsljanin, a Belgrade-based supporter who provides him with legal assistance, said forcing one on him would make his health problems worse.
“That would only increase his stress and antagonism and effort to follow everything a lawyer he does not trust is doing,” he said. “They are achieving what they wanted to achieve from the start — to prevent him from saying what he wants.”
