Milosevic Barred From Conducting Own Defence

The long-running trial of Slobodan Milosevic reached a turning point at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague yesterday when the three judges hearing the case ordered the accused to accept a defence lawyer despite his fierce resistance.

The ruling put an end to more than two years of Mr Milosevic representing himself in the biggest war crimes trial of the modern era.

The former Yugoslav president, who opened his defence this week against 66 charges of war crimes, denounced the order as scandalous and vowed to appeal. It is unclear how the trial will proceed should he choose to ignore the imposition of a defence team by refusing to cooperate with the lawyers.

The trial, which has been running for 30 months, has already lost almost 10 weeks because of Mr Milosevic's regular absences due to ill health. The opening of his defence this week was postponed five times for the same reason. Medical reportsnoted that he was refusing to take medication for hypertension that might make him more available for the trial.

The prosecution argued that he was manipulating the court and hijacking the trial.

The panel of three judges ruled that the order was "in the interests of justice". On the basis of four expert reports on his health, Mr Milosevic would not be up to the stress of defending himself and preparing his witnesses during the next 15 months.

Judge Patrick Robinson, citing a report by Belgian and Dutch heart specialists, said Mr Milosevic was suffering from "severe essential hyper-tension". He said the former Serb leader might put his life at risk by defending himself, and the trial's completion would also be in doubt.

The decision was final, he ruled, switching off Mr Milosevic's microphone in the courtroom when the accused sought to protest.

"It is plain from the medical reports that the accused is not fit enough to defend himself," Mr Robinson said. He dissented, however, from a 2-1 decision by the judges to deny Mr Milosevic's request for further medical tests by a panel of doctors, three of five selected by the accused.

The judges asked two British lawyers, Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins, to take on the defence brief. The two have attended the trial throughout as "friends of the court", appointed to represent Mr Milosevic's interests and make sure he gets a fair hearing. They are to respond by lunchtime today and Mr Milosevic is to present his first witness on Tuesday.

Yesterday's ruling makes it likely that the most important trial in Europe in almost 60 years will entail a war of words and battle of wits between two English lawyers, Mr Kay for the defence and Geoffrey Nice for the prosecution.

It is also likely that the judges will allow a compromise enabling Mr Milosevic to share the defence tasks and questioning of witnesses with his defence team. Such an arrangement has been proposed by both Mr Kay and Mr Nice. Alternatively, Mr Milosevic could opt to appoint a different defence team.

He has so far rejected all such arrangements, arguing that for three years he has been regarded as fit enough while the prosecution pursued its case against him, but is now not deemed fit enough precisely at the moment when he is due to take the starring role.

Although Mr Milosevic does not recognise the tribunal's legitimacy, refusing to enter a plea, and formally has no defence team, he in fact has a team of lawyers, experts and researchers working for him in The Hague and in Belgrade, as well as "friends of the court".