The genocide and war crimes trial of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, opened on Monday with an empty chair where the accused should have been sitting and angry shouts from victims’ relatives in the public gallery.

Making good on a threat issued last week, Mr Karadzic refused to leave his cell in a detention centre on the outskirts of The Hague. Since he is conducting his own defence, his absence left him with no representation in the courtroom, causing complications for trial judges and ensuring a frustrating start, rather than a epic opening, for one of the United Nations tribunal’s most important trials.