THE HAGUE: More than a year into the biggest war crimes trial since the end of the second World War, judges in the Hague gave the prosecution 100 more days yesterday to make the case for genocide against Mr Slobodan Milosevic.
The prospects for a successful prosecution of the former Serbian leader have shifted dramatically in recent weeks because of the smashing of his information and loyalist networks in Belgrade and the arrest of senior figures in the Serbian regime of the 1990s.
The extension granted yesterday to Ms Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor at the UN's international war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia, is likely to herald further courtroom revelations. She will try to seal her argument that Mr Milosevic was personally responsible for the genocide in Bosnia in 1992-1995, and for crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo.
He can expect to be jailed for life if convicted. The prosecution case was to have ended this month, but Ms Del Ponte pleaded for a further six months because of time lost through the defendant's repeated absences from court because of illness.
The judges refused, but agreed to 100 days before Mr Milosevic can start his defence.
The new deadline will probably force the prosecutors to scale down their plans to bring a further 100 witnesses.
In a written ruling yesterday, the judges said: "The trial chamber has come to the conclusion that it would be in the interests of justice to allow some variation in the time limit to allow the prosecution more time to call further witnesses it regards as essential."
The circumstances of the Milosevic case have been transformed by the assassination two months ago of the man who overthrew him in October 2000, the Serbian prime minister, Zoran Djindjic.
According to the Serb authorities, the assassination was plotted by underworld bosses and Milosevic loyalists in the security services, bound together by their hatred of the Hague tribunal and fears that they might end up before its judges if Djindjic lived.
In the purges and mass arrests after the murder, some of Mr Milosevic's closest acolytes were held and questioned. His influential wife, Mrs Mirjana Markovic, fled to Moscow to avoid arrest.
Two of Mr Milosevic's closest former security aides were also arrested in Belgrade.
The new timetable for the trial means a verdict is expected in mid-2006.