The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has appointed Scottish judge Lord Bonomy to oversee preparations for the genocide trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
Lord Bonomy's appointment comes after tribunal president Fausto Pocar reassigned the Dutch judge who led Karadzic's first appearance at the court.
On August 15 Karadzic mailed a letter to Pocar accusing Orie of having an anti-Serb bias and requesting that he be removed from the case.
Pocar said yesterday he had decided to change chambers for "trial management and case distribution needs." In a separate filing, he said Karadzic's letter had been submitted to him improperly, and so there was no need to address it, given the change.
Iain Bonomy was a judge in the trial of Karadzic's former mentor Slobodan Milosevic. That case was aborted when Milosevic died of a heart attack in his UN cell in March 2006.
Lord Bonomy and Karadzic will come face-to-face for the first time on August 29, when Karadzic must enter pleas to 11 charges including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. If he refuses, the court automatically enters not guilty pleas.
Karadzic was arrested last month in Serbia after 13 years on the run. 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.
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