Extradition appeal deadline for Karadzic closer
"War Crimes"07/25/2008
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - The deadline for Radovan Karadzic to appeal extradition to a United Nations war crimes tribunal expires Friday, a court spokeswoman said.
Spokeswoman Ivana Ramic told The Associated Press that Karadzic has until midnight Friday to lodge the formal appeal against the handover to the court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Once the court receives the appeal, a panel of judges will meet to decide on it, Ramic explained. After that, the case will be handed over to the government, which issues the final extradition order, Ramic said.
Karadzic's lawyer Sveta Vujacic has said that he plans to mail the appeal five minutes before the post offices close at 8 p.m. local time on Friday. That, he argued, would prolong the extradition period for his client, who apparently is hoping to buy time through legal wrangling.
"He has had three days, today is the last day," Ramic said.
Serbian officials have said that Karadzic could be handed over on weekend or early next week.
Karadzic had been a fugitive for over a decade before he was arrested. Government officials say he was captured on Monday, while his lawyer Vujacic claims Karadzic was apprehended last week.
Vujacic has filed a lawsuit against Karadzic's alleged "abductors" in another legal maneuver apparently designed to undermine smooth extradition to the U.N. court.
Court spokeswoman Ramic said that "all important circumstances" are being taken into account in the extradition procedure. She did not elaborate.
Karadzic's arrest has angered the nationalists in Serbia who have held daily protests against the pro-Western government. There are fears that further delay in Karadzic's extradition to the U.N. court could lead to more tensions.
While in hiding, Karadzic had assumed a false identity under the name Dragan Dabic, a 66-year-old construction worker from a town north of Belgrade, government official Rasim Ljajic said Thursday.
Karadzic took up Dabic's identity as a cover during the autocratic rule of his mentor Slobodan Milosevic. Officials have promised to track down those who helped Karadzic evade justice.
The true Dabic lives in Ruma, a Serbian town just north of Belgrade, according to Ljajic. He said that "Dabic's ID differs from Karadzic's only in the photographs of the two."
The real Dabic was shocked.
"Instead of working in the garden, I'm being besieged by reporters and answering telephone calls," he said in Ruma, adding that he had no idea how the copy of his ID ended up in Karadzic's hands.
Officials were trying to figure out whether Karadzic's ID was a fake or an official copy of Dabic's original.
Karadzic's lawyer has said that his client plans to defend himself against U.N. genocide charges, just as Milosevic did while in custody of the U.N. court. Milosevic died in 2006 while being tried for genocide.
Upon Karadzic's arrest, details have emerged of his secret life: a mistress, a bogus family in the U.S. and regular visits to the Madhouse bar, where a photo showed him during his beardless days as wartime political leader of Bosnian Serbs.
The capture of Karadzic capped an extraordinary turnaround for Serbia, where just a few months ago thugs outraged at Kosovo's independence set part of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade on fire, and ultranationalists prepared to seize power.
In May, after decades of frustration with nationalists, a pro-Western bloc won national elections on a promise to bring the impoverished nation closer to mainstream Europe.