[JURIST] A lawyer for Bosnian Serb leader and former fugitive Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] says he has filed an appeal with a Serbian court to block the transfer of his client to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official site], where Karadzic faces war crimes charges [amended indictment]. The lawyer said he had intentionally delayed the delivery of the filing in order to postpone a decision on the appeal until after an additional pro-Karadzic rally [JURIST report] scheduled for Tuesday. A Serbian war crimes prosecutor [official website] said the court had not yet received the appeal, and that any transfer of Karadzic would likely not occur until after the protest. Karadzic was recently arrested [JURIST report] after evading capture for nearly 13 years. Last week, his lawyer threatened to sue Serbian police for allegedly kidnapping Karadzic [JURIST report] before reporting his arrest. BBC News has more. AFP has additional coverage.

Karadzic was originally indicted [text] by the ICTY in 1995, but had been in hiding under an assumed identity until his arrest. Karadzic is accused of being involved in the Srebrenica [JURIST news archive] massacre and other crimes against Bosnian Muslims and Croats during ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. His capture has been a major goal of the ICTY [press release], and follows the June arrest [JURIST report] of former Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin [Trial Watch profile]. Former ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [BBC profile] frequently criticized Serbia for its seeming reluctance to cooperate with the ICTY, exemplified by its failure to find and capture [JURIST report] remaining war crimes suspects such as Karadzic.