UN court delays Karadzic trial

The opening of the trial of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was delayed yesterday as judges of a UN court partly upheld his appeal against the October 21 starting date.

"The appeals chamber orders the trial chamber to delay the commencement of the trial," said a ruling of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, made available to the media.

The appeals judges asked the trial chamber to start the trial one week after the prosecution files an updated version of the indictment, which it had been ordered to do by October 19.

"The amount of time provided to Karadzic for reviewing the marked-up indictment is exceedingly short and risks rendering the trial unfair," said the ruling.

The trial chamber will announce a new starting date.

Mr Karadzic has appealed against a court decision that his trial for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity should start on October 21, saying he needed several more months to prepare his defence.

He stands accused of 11 charges for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, notably for the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead and the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the village of Srebrenica.