The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has appointed Richard J. Harvey as lead counsel to represent Dr. Radovan Karadžić, former President of Republika Srpska (1992-1996), currently awaiting trial in The Hague on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Read more.
Having evaded arrest for two years, Dr. Karadžić was brought before the ICTY in July 2008 and elected to represent himself. He refused to attend the scheduled opening of his trial on 26 October 2009, saying he had only received the bulk of the prosecution evidence (comprising over one million pages) in May 2009 and thus had not been given sufficient time to prepare his defence.
The Trial Chamber ordered the ICTY Registrar to appoint counsel to represent his interests and adjourned the trial until 1 March 2010 ruling that if the accused fails to attend then, appointed counsel would take over his representation. The Registrar of the ICTY announced Richard Harvey's appointment on 20th November.
Richard Harvey specialises in international human rights, criminal defence, international environmental issues and governmental representation. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1971 and also practised in New York from 1982 to 2000 before returning to the UK to represent the family of one of the Bloody Sunday victims at the Saville Tribunal.
He was lead counsel at the ICTY in the case of Prosecutor v. Haradinaj et al., where he represented Lahi Brahimaj. Previously he was co-counsel in the case of Prosecutor v. Limaj et al., representing Haradin Bala. He also served as co-counsel during the pretrial phase of Prosecutor v. Juvenal Kajelijeli before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.
