Case No. IT-02-60-T

IN TRIAL CHAMBER I, SECTION A

Before:
Judge Liu Daqun, Presiding
Judge Volodymyr Vassylenko
Judge Carmen Maria Argibay

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis Decision of:
24 July 2003

PROSECUTOR

v.

VIDOJE BLAGOJEVIC
DRAGAN JOKIC

________________________________

DECISION ON PROSECUTION’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE CONSOLIDATED RESPONSE AND REPLY CONCERNING ADMISSIBILITY OF JOKIC STATEMENTS

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Peter McCloskey

Counsel for the Accused:

Mr. Michael Karnavas and Ms. Suzana Tomanovic for Vidoje Blagojevic
Mr. Miodrag Stojanovic and Ms. Cynthia Sinatra for Dragan Jokic

TRIAL CHAMBER I, SECTION A, ("Trial Chamber") of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 ("Tribunal"),

BEING SEISED OF the "Prosecution’s Motion for Leave to File Consolidated Response and Reply Concerning Admissibility of Jokic Statements," filed on 17 July 2003 ("Motion") by the Office of the Prosecutor ("Prosecution"),

NOTING the "Prosecution’s Motion for Clarification of Oral Decision Regarding Admissibility of Accused’s Statements," filed on 30 June 2003, in which the Prosecution seeks clarification of a Trial Chamber oral decision of 22 May 2003 finding that statements taken from Dragan Jokic and former co-accused Dragan Obrenovic were inadmissible at the current time and in the circumstances of that time, pursuant to Rule 89 (D) of the Rules of Evidence and Procedure of the Tribunal ("Rules"),¹

NOTING “Mr. Jokic’s Motion to Exclude Statements and Response to Prosecution’s Motion for Clarification of Oral Decision Regarding Admissibility of Statements,” filed on 14 July 2003 (“Jokic Motion and Response”),

NOTING that in the Motion, the Prosecution avers that Jokic’s Motion and Response “claims for the first time that ₣Mr. Jokic’sğ statements are inadmissible because they were, in effect, coerced,"² and that Jokic’s Motion and Response "constitutes a new motion for exclusion on entirely new grounds, and is rife with unwarranted personal attacks and unsupported claims that run contrary to all evidence before the Trial Chamber,"³

NOTING that the Prosecution asks to be granted fourteen days to file a consolidated response/reply to the Jokic Motion and Response,

CONSIDERING that the Jokic Motion and Response expands on previously referenced arguments put forward by the Jokic Defence on the date the written statements in question were tendered by the Prosecution⁴ and raises some new arguments,

CONSIDERING that the Trial Chamber would therefore benefit from hearing the complete submissions of all parties on this issue before rendering its decision,

PURSUANT TO Rule 127 of the Rules of Evidence and Procedure of the Tribunal,

HEREBY GRANTS the Motion and ORDERS that the Prosecution file its consolidated Response and Reply, which shall be no more than five pages, by 30 July 2003 at 12:00 hours.

Done in English and French, the English version being authoritative.

_______________
Judge Liu Daqun
Presiding

Dated this twenty-fourth day of July 2003,
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]