Karadzic will miss war crimes trial start

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic told a war crimes tribunal in a letter he won't be in court when his trial begins, a court spokeswoman said.

A spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Karadzic's trial was expected to start Monday at The Hague, Netherlands, CNN reported.

"The tribunal judges control court proceedings. They are the only relevant body that can make a decision about the readiness of the case for trial," she said.

Karadzic, who is defending himself, faces genocide charges and nine other counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Muslims and Croats, and other non-Serbians during violent break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Karadzic was arrested in 2008 after hiding out for more than a decade. He was found living in Belgrade, Serbia's capital, and practicing alternative medicine in disguise.

The genocide charges against him arise in part from the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica when ethnic Serb troops overran a U.N. safe area in July 1995, CNN said. U.N. tribunal prosecutors allege Karadzic was responsible.