![ICTY judge rejects Milosevic counsel’s attempt to withdraw as trial resumes](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
[JURIST] Judge Theodor Meron, president judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website; JURIST Hot Topic], has ruled that two British lawyers appointed to represent former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST Newsmaker] may not withdraw from the case, despite Milosevic's refusal to cooperate and insistence on representing himself. The ruling was released Tuesday as the trial resumed after being cancelled for several days as Milosevic recovered from the flu. Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins were appointed to represent Milosevic last year due to his poor health, but he later won back his right to self-representation. The two attorneys were to remain as standby counsel, however. The war crimes trial of the central figure in the fall of Yugoslavia during the 1990s has been plagued by delays due to Milosevic's ailing health and refusal to cooperate, and it will reach the two-year mark at the end of this week. Read the court's full ruling [text]. An ICTY press release is available. Reuters has more.