Judge in UN tribunal removes Mladic from hearing for being out of order
13:26 04/07/2011 MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) - Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic was removed on Monday from a hearing in a UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, global TV channels reported.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) accuses Mladic, 68, of committing genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1992-95 Bosnian War. He is thought to be behind the 1995 genocide of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, Europe's worst single atrocity since World War II.
Mladic refused to participate in the hearings until he is provided with new lawyers.
Lawyer Milos Saljic said on Sunday his defendant is likely to boycott Monday's court session, as the ICTY failed to approve his list of lawyers. According to previous reports, Mladic had chosen Saljic and Russian lawyer Alexander Mezyaev to be his defense team.
Mladic has pleaded not guilty to all 11 counts.
If Mladic had pled guilty to the 11 counts of the indictment, there would be no trial and the tribunal would have sentenced him. If he pleads not guilty, even to one of the charges, the trial will continue.
Mladic, who was arrested in Serbia on May 26 after 16 years on the run, rejected all the charges as "obnoxious" and "monstrous." He also requested additional time to familiarize himself with the indictment.
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