The trial of Radovan Karadzic starts today at the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

Karadzic is defending himself and has asked for a 10 month adjournment to prepare his defence, a request that has been dismissed as a delaying tactic.

But the prosecution has filed over 1m pages of evidence against him which raises concerns.  Whilst the man is clearly guilty – I don’t think there are many that would argue that he didn’t do what he’s accused of – there is no way, even with a team of defence lawyers, that a defence could be mounted against 1m pages of evidence.

There will be no successful defence – you don’t get a million pages of evidence for something that didn’t happen – but everyone has a right to defend themselves and without a defence you don’t have a fair trial.  It is impossible to mount a defence against 1m pages of evidence so Karadzic won’t get a fair trial.  You might not think he deserves one but when you start denying the right to a fair trial, it’s time to worry about the way society is going.