The announcement of judge Richard May’s resignation yesterday comes at a time when legal experts have begun raising doubts about whether the prosecution has succeeded in proving that Milosevic’s role in the ethnic wars that devastated the former Yugoslavia amounts to genocide.
Under tribunal rules, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan can appoint a new judge to continue the trial, but Milosevic almost certainly will argue for a new trial.
The real concern for the prosecution, however, is after presenting evidence and producing a court record, many legal experts doubt it will be enough to win a conviction for genocide.
After the prosecution calls its last witnesses this week, the court will take a three-month recess to allow Milosevic, who is acting as his own lawyer, to prepare his defence.
