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1 Tuesday, 4 July 2000
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The accused entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 4.40 p.m.
6 JUDGE POCAR: The Status Conference is called to order.
7 Mr. Registrar, would you please call the case?
8 THE REGISTRAR: [Interpretation] Case IT-95-14-A, the Prosecutor
9 versus Tihomir Blaskic.
10 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. Mr. Blaskic, you are present in Court.
11 Can you hear me? Are there any language problems?
12 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. I
13 can hear you fine, and there are no problems with interpretation.
14 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. And who is appearing for the
15 Prosecution?
16 MR. YAPA: May it please Your Honour. I'm Upawansa Yapa appearing
17 for the Prosecution with Mr. Norman Farrell and Mr. Roeland Bos.
18 Ms. Kirsten Keith is the case manager.
19 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. And for Mr. Blaskic?
20 MR. HAYMAN: Good afternoon, Your Honour. I'm Russell Hayman,
21 counsel for General Blaskic, appearing with my co-counsel Anto Nobilo, and
22 my colleague Jennifer Gully.
23 JUDGE MAY: Thank you.
24 JUDGE POCAR: I would then refer to the scheduling order that
25 indicated today as the day for this Status Conference before the
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1 pre-appeal Judge. May I first recall -- sorry for my voice today --
2 recall that the Status Conference is based on Article 65 bis of the Rules,
3 and I would like to read out to remind everybody of the purposes of this
4 Status Conference.
5 According to Rule 65 bis, that is a quite recent Rule that was
6 adopted last November:
7 "The Appeals Chamber or an Appeals Chamber Judge shall convene a
8 status conference, within one hundred and twenty days of the filing of a
9 notice of appeal and thereafter within one hundred and twenty days after
10 the last status conference, to allow any person in custody pending appeal
11 the opportunity to raise issues in relation thereto, including the mental
12 and physical condition of that person."
13 So the purpose of this Status Conference is of a double nature.
14 First, to allow, in this case, Mr. Blaskic to express concerns directly or
15 through his counsel relating to the appeal, to the detention conditions;
16 and secondly, to update the appellant with respect to the status of the
17 appeal.
18 Now, I would like to note that there is an outstanding issue
19 before the Appeals Chamber relating to a motion that has been filed by the
20 appellant on the 4th of April, but this will not be a matter for
21 discussion here at this Status Conference. I will only say that a
22 decision of the Appeals Chamber on the motion will follow shortly.
23 I note also that on the 27th, if I'm correct, of June, the
24 appellant has filed a supplement to the motion to suspend the briefing
25 schedule or, alternatively, for extension of time to file the appellant
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1 brief. The delay for the Prosecution to answer that motion has not
2 expired yet.
3 May I ask the Prosecution if it intends to answer that motion or
4 not, just to be informed?
5 MR. YAPA: Your Honour, we will be responding to the motion by
6 Friday this week.
7 JUDGE POCAR: Okay. I take note of that. Of course, the Appeals
8 Chamber will answer that motion too with an order, but of course, this
9 would be following -- necessarily following the answer to the other
10 motion, because on the 19th of May, the Appeals Chamber had issued an
11 order suspending the date for the filing of the appellant's brief pending
12 the resolution of the other motion. So that will happen in due course and
13 all this is taken care of in that respect.
14 Is there any problem on these motions for the time being or the
15 status of affairs is clear to everybody?
16 MR. HAYMAN: We understand they're pending, Your Honour. We
17 haven't addressed in our motion how much time we think we would need to
18 prepare our appeal. For now we simply have asked for a suspension and for
19 certain other things to happen, and we would hope that when the time
20 comes, the Court will be interested in our views on that subject, and I'm
21 sure the Court will be interested in both of the parties' views with
22 respect to setting an actual schedule.
23 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you. I take note of that. Certainly once
24 the resolution of the motion is done, we will provide for another schedule
25 taking into account the positions of the parties.
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1 That having been said, I would ask the appellant to address the
2 Chamber with any concerns they may have concerning the appeal or the
3 detention. Is there any problem?
4 MR. HAYMAN: Your Honour, we do not believe there are any issues
5 that General Blaskic wishes to raise with the Court, but we invite the
6 Court to inquire, if it wishes, directly the appellant on that issue.
7 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. We will turn directly to Mr. Blaskic.
8 Mr. Blaskic, have you heard what your counsel has said? Do you
9 have any particular representation to make at this stage? You have the
10 floor.
11 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I thank you for your
12 interest. I do not have any particular problems or remarks regarding the
13 conditions of detention.
14 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you. You may sit down. I thank you. In
15 that case, I understand that the conditions of detention are regular and
16 there is no particular problem of your concern. I take note of that.
17 I wonder if there are any other matters to be raised at this
18 Status Conference at this point.
19 MR. YAPA: We do not have any matters to be raised at this stage,
20 Your Honour.
21 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.
22 MR. HAYMAN: We have raised all matters by motion, Your Honour, so
23 we don't have anything to add.
24 JUDGE POCAR: Okay. So you'll wait for the resolution of the
25 motions.
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1 MR. HAYMAN: Yes. Thank you.
2 JUDGE POCAR: Well, in this case, I think that we can adjourn this
3 Status Conference. I repeat that the decision on the first motion will
4 follow shortly and then the schedule will be re-established taking into
5 account the positions of the parties.
6 The meeting is adjourned.
7 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned
8 at 4.50 p.m.
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