THE HAGUE: The trial of Mr Slobodan Milosevic looked certain to face more extensive delays yesterday after the presiding judge resigned. A new judge will have to be appointed to replace Judge Richard May, the Briton who has overseen the hearings in the Hague, after it was announced he was retiring because of illness.
The new appointee, who is also expected to be British and will be selected by Mr Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, faces the daunting task of reading through the trial's hundreds of witness testimonies and thousands of pages of prosecution evidence.
Preparation could take months. The trial had been expected to run until 2006, but could now run much longer. Under US pressure, the UN security council has ruled that all trials at the Yugoslav tribunal in The Hague have to be over by 2008.
The process is likely to be contested by Mr Milosevic and even if, as expected, Judge Theodor Meron, the tribunal president, orders that the trial proceed under the new judge, Mr Milosevic can appeal against that ruling.
Mr Milosevic, facing 66 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, is certain to exploit every opportunity to play for time and discomfit a court whose validity he does not accept.
He could call for a mistrial verdict or for the trial to be reopened.
Because of the defendant's health problems, around a quarter of court time has already been lost over the past two years and the hearings have been restricted to three sessions a week.
Almost 300 witnesses have given evidence for the prosecution, which was due to close its case this week.
It is not yet clear if Mr Milosevic will appear in court next week before the case is recessed for three months while he prepares his defence. But the security council is expected to exempt the gravest three or four cases from the 2008 deadline and, if need be, the Milosevic trial could also be made an exception.