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Milosevic Challenges Legality of His Case
A Dutch court held a hearing Thursday for lawyers representing former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to challenge the legal power of the U.N. war crimes tribunal to bring him to trial, it is reported Thursday.
In what is seen as a legal long shot, a team of four attorneys said they will seek a ruling that Milosevic's transfer from Belgrade and detention in the Netherlands were illegal and will claim his rights are being abused at a U.N. detention unit outside The Hague.
The Dutch state was represented by two lawyers.
A district court judge will decide, probably within a week, either to quash the case or to call for a full trial.
Milosevic's legal team said Wednesday that it will seek an order to release the imprisoned former leader and a ruling that the tribunal is unconstitutional.
Milosevic, who has spent seven weeks in the Netherlands, said at his arraignment last month that he does not recognize the tribunal as a legal body. He contends that it is illegitimate because it was established by the U.N. Security Council, not the General Assembly.
But the tribunal argued that Milosevic recognized the tribunal when he signed the Dayton peace accord in 1995 that ended years of civil war in Bosnia.
Milosevic was indicted for alleged war crimes in Kosovo in 1999. He refused to plea at his arraignment, but the court entered pleas of innocent for him on all counts.
A member of Milosevic's legal team, Christopher Black of Canada, said Wednesday that he thought the case had a chance.
"A Dutch judge may have the courage" to back the case against the tribunal, Black said. "It is quite possible that the Dutch court will agree with Milosevic," he added.
Another lawyer, Nico Varkevisser, said: "We think that if we believe in human rights and representation of legal rights, Milosevic will be in Belgrade next week."
Black said the four Dutch lawyers presenting the case had not met with the former president. One of them apparently refused to visit Milosevic because the tribunal declined to grant him an unmonitored visit accorded to legal counsel.
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