Judge Saban Maksumic, who presides over the panel of judges conducting the trial, postponed the trial until further notice, giving the prosecution another chance to ensure the translation of statements given by prosecution witnesses and the defence team time to hire a lawyer who speaks English.
Ljubicic was indicted for war crimes committed against Muslims in central Bosnia in 1993, when he was commander of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) 4th Military Police Battalion.
International prosecutor David Schwendiman said today he intended to present more than 2,600 pages of documents during the trial. The documents refer mostly to statements given by prosecution witnesses before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The tribunal referred the trial of Ljubicic to the Bosnian judiciary in 2006.
Almost none of the documents the Bosnian prosecution counts on has been translated. It is estimated that the translation of the documents will take more than a year.
Ljubicic's attorney Branka Praljak said that the defence team was willing to hire a lawyer who speaks English. Along with the gradual translation of the Hague transcripts, this would make it possible for the trial to start in reasonable time.