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1 Wednesday, 18 March 2009
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The appellant Tarculovski entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 2.29 p.m.
6 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Good afternoon to you all. The
7 court is in session.
8 Registrar, can you call the case, please.
9 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. This is case number
10 IT-04-82-A, the Prosecutor versus Ljube Boskoski and Johan Tarculovski.
11 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.
12 Mr. Tarculovski, can you hear and follow the proceedings in a
13 language that you understand?
14 THE APPELLANT TARCULOVSKI: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.
15 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] You may sit down.
16 Can we have the appearances, please, starting with the
17 representatives of the OTP, please.
18 MS. MARTIN SALGADO: Good afternoon, Your Honour. My name is
19 Elena Martin Salgado. I'm appearing on behalf of the Prosecution and
20 with me is appeals counsel, Paul Rogers, and case manager,
21 Lourdes Galicia
22 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Ms. Salgado.
23 Let me turn to the representatives of Mr. Boskoski's Defence.
24 MR. METTRAUX: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Guenael Mettraux
25 assisted by Mr. Sulejman Imsirpasic.
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1 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much, Mr. Mettraux.
2 Let me now turn to the representatives of Mr. Tarculovski's
3 Defence.
4 MR. N. DERSHOWITZ: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Nathan
5 Dershowitz and Antonio Apostolski on behalf of Mr. Johan Tarculovski.
6 JUDGE GUNEY: [No interpretation]
7 [Interpretation] -- within 120 days after the filing of the
8 notice of appeal.
9 This Status Conference has been convened in accordance with
10 Rule 65 bis (B) and (C) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of this
11 Tribunal, that requires a Status Conference to be held within 120 days of
12 the filing of the notice of appeal.
13 For technical reasons, I shall repeat. As you know, this
14 Status Conference has been convened in accordance with Rule 65 bis
15 (B) and (C) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Tribunal, that
16 requires a Status Conference to be held within 120 days of the filing of
17 the notice of appeal, and thereafter within 120 days after the last
18 Status Conference.
19 The main purpose of a Status Conference is to allow any person in
20 custody, pending appeal, the opportunity to raise issues in relation
21 thereto, including the mental and physical condition of that person. We
22 met for the first time on the 1st of December, 2008. Let me recall that
23 the Trial Chamber handed down its judgement in this case on the
24 10th of July, 2008. Let me also remind you that the OTP filed its notice
25 of appeal on the 6th of August, 2008, and Mr. Tarculovski's Defence filed
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1 its notice of appeal on the 8th of August, 2008.
2 I would now like to address the conditions in detention and the
3 state of health of Mr. Tarculovski.
4 Mr. Tarculovski, would you like to address any concerns you may
5 have concerning your conditions in detention or your state of health?
6 THE APPELLANT TARCULOVSKI: [Interpretation] No, I have no
7 problems, Your Honour. Everything is fine.
8 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. You may sit
9 down.
10 I shall remind you of the schedule for the filing of submissions
11 on appeal. The OTP filed its confidential appeals brief on the
12 20th of October, 2008, as well as a redacted version of this brief on the
13 3rd of November and a redacted version that was corrected and which was
14 filed on the 4th of November, 2008. Mr. Boskoski's Defence filed its
15 brief in response on the 1st of December, 2008. And the OTP filed its
16 brief in reply on the 16th of December, 2008.
17 I note also that Mr. Tarculovski's Defence filed his appeals
18 brief, his confidential appeals brief, on the 9th of January, 2009
19 well as a redacted version of this brief on the 12th of January, 2009
20 The Appeals Chamber is currently seized of the pending motions filed by
21 the parties. It will hand down its decision in due course.
22 Furthermore, let me remind you that pursuant to the decision
23 handed down by the Appeals Chamber on the 18th of February, 2008, at the
24 request of the OTP for an extension of the time-limit to file its brief
25 in response as follows: This will be filed 14 days after the
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1 Appeals Chamber has handed down its decision on the pending motions filed
2 by Mr. Tarculovski asking for leave to amend his notice of appeal filed
3 on the 12th of January, 2009
4 the grounds of appeal of Mr. Tarculovski's appeals brief filed on the
5 22nd of January, 2009, dropped.
6 Once all the submissions have been filed, the Appeals Chamber
7 will then decide how to proceed and will set the date of the appeals
8 hearing. I would, however, like to ask the parties if at this stage they
9 have any questions they would like to address at this -- at this
10 Status Conference.
11 Let me now turn to the representatives of the OTP.
12 MS. MARTIN SALGADO: Your Honour, we don't have any issues to
13 raise at this point. Thank you.
14 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much,
15 Mrs. Martin Salgado.
16 Defence counsel of Mr. Tarculovski, would you like to address
17 anything in particular?
18 MR. N. DERSHOWITZ: [Microphone not activated]
19 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
20 MR. N. DERSHOWITZ: The only question is trying to figure out a
21 schedule knowing that decisions will come down in due course and just
22 trying, in a vague sort of way, to have some idea as to whether there is
23 a chance that the argument will take place prior to the break or whether
24 we should anticipate that it will be argued after the break.
25 JUDGE GUNEY: Thank you, counsel. I took note of what you have
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1 just been saying, and I can assure you that the Chamber will do its best
2 to accelerate the process. Thank you.
3 [Interpretation] Let me now turn to Mr. Boskoski's Defence
4 counsel. Do you wish to address any particular issue at this juncture.
5 MR. METTRAUX: Thank you. You have given an answer to our
6 question.
7 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Mettraux.
8 As far as I'm concerned, I have no other issue to raise. I
9 believe, therefore, that we can adjourn the hearing for today. I would
10 like to thank the parties for having attended this Status Conference as
11 well as staff members of this Tribunal and for having helped us organise
12 this Status Conference.
13 The court stands adjourned.
14 --- Whereupon the Status Conference
15 adjourned at 2.42 p.m.
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