The Scottish judge Lord Bonomy was yesterday appointed to oversee the preparations for the genocide trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at The Hague.

The Scottish judge Lord Bonomy was yesterday appointed to oversee the preparations for the genocide trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at The Hague.

Lord Bonomy, who sat on the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, until the former Yugoslav president died of a heart attack in his cell in March 2006, was appointed after the war crimes tribunal reassigned the Dutch judge who led Mr Karadzic's first appearance at the court.

The Scottish judge, who began his legal career in 1968 as an apprentice solicitor with East Kilbride town council, will come face-to-face with Mr Karadzic for the first time on August 29, when the former Bosnian Serb leader must enter pleas to 11 charges including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. If he refuses, the court automatically enters not guilty pleas.

Mr Karadzic was arrested last month in Serbia after 13 years on the run and transferred to UN custody in The Hague. Tribunal prosecutors allege that he masterminded atrocities including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and the deadly 44-month siege of Sarajevo during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Earlier this month, Mr Karadzic wrote to the war trial tribunal president, Fausto Pocar, accusing the Dutch pre-trial presiding judge, Alphons Orie, of having an anti-Serb bias and requesting that he be removed.

Mr Karadzic argued that Judge Orie had a "personal interest" in his case because he had participated in previous trials and would want those judgments validated. Karadzic said the Dutch judge had been on the bench in the case of Momcilo Krajisnik, the former Bosnian Serb parliament speaker who is appealing against his 27-year sentence.

Judge Orie also was on the tribunal that convicted Croatian Serb leader, Milan Babic, who committed suicide in the tribunal's detention unit in 2006, and is among the judges trying Serb nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj.

While handing down tough sentences against Serbs, Judge Orie presided in the acquittal of former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, an "outcome that was incredible," Mr Karadzic said.

A tribunal official said the assignment of new judges for the case was not in response to Mr Karadzic's request. It was when prosecutors informed the tribunal that they were no longer trying to combine Mr Karadzic's case with that of another suspect that his case was assigned to a different trial chamber.

Tribunal president Judge Pocar said he had decided to change chambers for "trial management and case distribution needs".