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1 Monday, 3 June 2002
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The appellant entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 4.03 p.m.
6 JUDGE POCAR: This Status Conference is called to order. Good
7 afternoon to everybody. Madam Registrar, would you call the case, please.
8 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour. Good afternoon. This is case
9 number IT-95-14-A, Prosecutor versus Tihomir Blaskic.
10 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. May I call for the appearances. For the
11 Prosecutor?
12 MR. FARRELL: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Appearing for the
13 Prosecution today is myself, Norman Farrell. With me is Ms. Kelly Howick,
14 and our case manager, Wolfgang Sakulin.
15 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. For Mr. Blaskic? I understand there is
16 a phone link with counsel for Mr. Blaskic. Is that correct? I don't hear
17 anything at the moment.
18 May I ask for appearance of counsel for Mr. Blaskic.
19 MR. HAYMAN: Yes, Your Honour. Good afternoon. Appearing for
20 General Blaskic, by telephone from Los Angeles, are Russel Hayman and
21 Andrew Paley.
22 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you very much. Now, Mr. Blaskic, I'm sorry, I
23 didn't ask you before. Did you hear? Do you have any problems with
24 hearing what's going on and with the translation?
25 THE APPELLANT: Good afternoon, Your Honour. I can hear you very
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1 well and I can understand everything.
2 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. You may sit down. Now, let us come to
3 the subject of this Status Conference. First, as usual, the Status
4 Conference has the purpose of allowing the appellant to raise any issues
5 in relation to his detention. May I ask if there is any problem of this
6 kind?
7 MR. HAYMAN: Your Honour, this is Mr. Hayman. We are not aware of
8 any problems with General Blaskic's issue of detention, but we invite you
9 to address him directly regarding that question.
10 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you, Mr. Hayman. Mr. Blaskic, do you have any
11 complaint to make or any comment to make about your detention?
12 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I have no complaint
13 about the conditions of detention, and as for comments, all I can say is
14 that the staff is treating everyone professionally and in an equal manner.
15 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you, Mr. Blaskic. You know that if you had
16 any problem, you can always follow the procedure under the rules to raise
17 it appropriately.
18 If there is no problem of this kind concerning the detention of
19 Mr. Blaskic, I would like to come to the status of this appeal. Now, I
20 understand that the -- all the briefs, the appeal briefs, are now in. The
21 appellant briefs had been filed in January, and the public redacted
22 version has been filed on the 7th of March. The Prosecution respondent
23 brief was filed on the 1st of May, and the reply of the appellant has been
24 filed today, as it was scheduled.
25 Now, here I see one point I would raise immediately, and that's
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1 the confidentiality of all these documents. As I told before, the
2 appellant's brief has been filed in a public redacted version on the 7th
3 of March, but we still do not have a public redacted version of the
4 Prosecution's response brief, and of course of the today's reply. I would
5 like to have both these documents in a public redacted version since it is
6 normal that submissions be filed confidentially, only as far as there is a
7 real security concern. Would that be suitable for the parties to have ten
8 days to submit a public redacted version, Mr. Farrell?
9 MR. FARRELL: On behalf of the Prosecution, that should be no
10 problem at all. Thank you.
11 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. Mr. Hayman, do you have any problem in
12 filing a public redacted version of the reply, of your reply that was
13 filed today in ten days as of now?
14 MR. HAYMAN: In ten working days, Your Honour, I am confident we
15 could accomplish that.
16 JUDGE POCAR: Ten working days. Okay. Okay, that's fine. So
17 public redacted versions of the Prosecution's respondent brief and of the
18 reply will be filed within ten working days.
19 Coming to the pending motions in this appeal, we have still two
20 pending motions concerning additional evidence. The -- there is a first
21 motion to admit additional evidence submitted by the appellant, to which
22 response and reply have been filed. I note that public redacted version
23 of these briefs have been filed also. A second motion to admit additional
24 evidence has been filed by the appellant. Response and reply have been
25 filed. And public redacted version have been filed of these two
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1 documents. So this is fine.
2 I note that the appellant has expressed the intention of filing a
3 third motion for additional evidence. May I, perhaps, ask Mr. Hayman if
4 he can say when such a motion will be filed.
5 MR. HAYMAN: Of course, Your Honour. Now that we have filed the
6 reply brief today, I expect we can file our third Rule 115 motion no later
7 than Friday, June 7th.
8 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. So I understand that motion will be
9 filed at the end of this week.
10 MR. HAYMAN: Yes, Your Honour.
11 JUDGE POCAR: When we will receive that motion, the appeal Chamber
12 has the intention of dealing with these three motions together and issue
13 one decision concerning additional evidence. I cannot say exactly when
14 that decision will be issued, but as soon as possible.
15 Is there any comment in this connection from the Prosecution?
16 MR. FARRELL: No, none whatsoever, just note that once we receive
17 it, we'll try and comply within the ten days, but we may, depending on the
18 motion itself, seek an extension. But that will be decided at the time.
19 Thank you.
20 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you, Mr. Farrell. Mr. Hayman, do you have any
21 comment on this?
22 MR. HAYMAN: Your Honour, we certainly support that schedule. I do
23 note that we have received some new translated material and other new
24 material within the past few days and weeks from the Prosecution's office
25 pursuant to Rule 68, and now that we again have filed and completed our
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1 reply brief today, we will set ourselves immediately to reviewing those
2 materials. Without knowing what is in those materials, I do not know if
3 there is any other material that we need to bring to the attention of the
4 Court under Rule 115. We will not wait, however, to review those further
5 materials to file the Rule 115 motion that we have briefly discussed and
6 raised with the Court with respect to the need for protective measures.
7 So we will get that motion filed this week and proceed from there.
8 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you, Mr. Hayman. I take note of that. And as
9 I said before, the intention of the Chamber is to consider the three
10 motions together. Of course, if you will file additional materials, we
11 will take that into account maybe later, at a later stage possibly,
12 depending on when the material is submitted, of course.
13 Well, this was what I wanted to deal with, with the pending
14 motions. Is there any other issue that the parties would like to raise at
15 this point? Mr. Farrell?
16 MR. FARRELL: None on behalf of the Prosecution. No, thank you.
17 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. Mr. Hayman?
18 MR. HAYMAN: None, Your Honour. Thank you.
19 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. Then I think we can adjourn this Status
20 Conference. The Status Conference stands adjourned.
21 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at
22 4.16 p.m.
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