IN THE APPEALS CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Lal Chand Vohrah, Presiding
Judge Rafael Nieto-Navia
Judge Patricia Wald
Judge Fausto Pocar
Judge Liu Daqun

Registrar:
Mrs. Dorothee de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh

Order of:
8 June 2000

PROSECUTOR

v.

TIHOMIR BLASKIC

___________________________________________________________

ORDER APPOINTING A PRE-APPEAL JUDGE
AND SCHEDULING ORDER

___________________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Upawansa Yapa

Counsel for the Appellant:

Mr. Anto Nobilo
Mr. Russell Hayman
Mr. Andrew Paley

 

THE APPEALS 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 ("the International Tribunal");

BEING SEISED of the "Defendant’s Notice of Appeal" filed by Tihomir Blaškic on 17 March 2000, from the Judgement of Trial Chamber I in the case of Prosecutor v. Tihomir Blaškic, dated 3 March 2000;

NOTING the provisions of Article 20, paragraph 1 of the Statute of the International Tribunal ("the Statute"), which enshrines the right to "a fair and expeditious" trial and Article 21, paragraph 4(c) of the Statute, which guarantees the accused's right "to be tried without undue delay";

CONSIDERING that the accused’s right to a fair and expeditious trial includes the conduct of appellate proceedings pursuant to Article 25 of the Statute;

NOTING Rule 65ter of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal ("the Rules") which provides that a Trial Chamber shall "designate from among its members a Judge responsible for the pre-trial proceedings" ("the pre-trial Judge");

NOTING the powers of a pre-trial Judge as set out in Rule 65ter of the Rules;

NOTING Rule 107 of the Rules which provides that the "rules of procedure and evidence that govern proceedings in the Trial Chambers shall apply mutatis mutandis to proceedings in the Appeals Chamber";

CONSIDERING that Rule 65ter is a rule that governs proceedings in the Trial Chambers;

CONSIDERING FURTHER that it is in the interests of justice and of a more expeditious and effectively managed appeal to appoint a Judge to be responsible on behalf of the Appeals Chamber for matters arising prior to the commencement of the hearing of the Appeal ("the pre-appeal Judge");

PURSUANT TO Rules 65ter and 107 of the Rules;

HEREBY DESIGNATES Judge Fausto Pocar as the pre-appeal Judge in this Appeal, such appointment to take effect forthwith;

ENTRUSTS the pre-appeal Judge with (i) the determination of all pre-appeal motions of a procedural nature under Rule 73 as it applies to the Appeals Chamber, with the power to refer to the Appeals Chamber any such motions as he considers appropriate, and (ii) the conduct of one or more Status Conferences prior to the hearing of the Appeal, in order to determine, in consultation with the Appeals Chamber, the procedures to be followed in that hearing;

AND CONSIDERING that Tihomir Blaškic is currently in detention at the United Nations Detention Unit in The Hague pending the hearing of the appeal;

FURTHER ORDERS that a Status Conference pursuant to sub-Rule 65bis(B) shall be held before Judge Fausto Pocar on 4 July 2000 at 4.30 p.m.

 

Done in both English and French, the English text being authoritative.

____________________________
Lal Chand Vohrah
Presiding Judge

Dated this eighth day of June 2000
At The Hague,
The Netherlands.

[Seal of the Tribunal]