Prosecutors want Bosnian war crimes trial moved out of ICTY News
Prosecutors want Bosnian war crimes trial moved out of ICTY

[JURIST] Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Thursday filed an urgent motion seeking to move the trial [ICTY materials] of former Bosnian army commander Rasim Delic [UN case backgrounder, PDF; Trial Watch profile] out of the international court at The Hague. The move comes in response to an order limiting the number of witnesses allowed to be called. Prosecutors wish to hold the trial for Delic, who led Bosnia's Muslim army during the 1992-95 Bosnian war [Wikipedia backgrounder], in Sarajevo. Prosecutors had reduced an original witness list from 91 to 75, but several days ago judges at the court ruled that no more than 55 witnesses could be called. AP reports that a spokeswoman for the prosecutors called the situation "serious," pointing out that the witness list was submitted eight or nine months prior to the judges' ruling to limit it.

Delic entered a plea of not guilty [JURIST report] in March 2005. He gave himself up [JURIST report] soon after being charged [original indictment; JURIST report]. Those charges were updated [amended indictment, PDF] in 2006, and include allegations of murder, rape, and two counts of cruel treatment. AP has more.