Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 1

1 Friday, 28 April 2000

2 [Initial Appearance]

3 [Open session]

4 [The accused entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 10.02 a.m.

6 JUDGE HUNT: Call the case, please.

7 THE REGISTRAR: [Interpretation] Case

8 IT-94-2-I, the Prosecutor versus Dragan Nikolic.

9 JUDGE HUNT: Appearances for the

10 Prosecution.

11 MS. PATERSON: Yes, Your Honour. Nancy

12 Paterson appearing on behalf of the Office of the

13 Prosecutor, and with me is Andrew Powell, the case

14 manager.

15 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you, Ms. Paterson.

16 For the accused.

17 MR. ILIC: [Interpretation] Borisa Ilic,

18 lawyer from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska.

19 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you, Mr. Ilic. Are you

20 appearing for the accused only in relation to this

21 Initial Appearance, or are you appearing for him for

22 the whole of the proceedings?

23 MR. ILIC: [Interpretation] For the time

24 being, the accused asked me to represent him at the

25 Initial Appearance.

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1 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you very much.

2 Mr. Nikolic, would you stand up, please.

3 [The accused stands]

4 JUDGE HUNT: Are you able to hear the

5 proceedings in a language which you understand?

6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes.

7 JUDGE HUNT: What is your full name?

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Dragan Nikolic.

9 JUDGE HUNT: What is the date upon which you

10 believe that you were born?

11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The 26th of

12 April, 1957.

13 JUDGE HUNT: And what is your present age?

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I am 43.

15 JUDGE HUNT: What is the address at which you

16 resided before you were arrested?

17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Joakim

18 Vujic 19, Smederevo.

19 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you very much. You may

20 sit down.

21 Mr. Ilic, it's common practice within the

22 Tribunal for the accused to waive his right to have the

23 indictment read out in full. Have you had a chance of

24 discussing this with your client?

25 MR. ILIC: [Interpretation] By all means. I

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1 should like to inform you that the accused has the

2 indictment in the Serbian language. He has also

3 analysed the indictment, understands all its counts,

4 and is ready to plead identically to all counts of the

5 indictment.

6 JUDGE HUNT: Is that a suggestion, a

7 common-sense suggestion, that we should take the pleas

8 globally to the indictment, that is, one plea to all of

9 the counts rather than taking them separately?

10 MR. ILIC: [Interpretation] Yes, that is so.

11 JUDGE HUNT: That is, if I may say so, a very

12 good idea. I'll ask the Prosecution about it in a

13 moment. But before you sit down, are you satisfied

14 that he does understand all of the contents of the

15 indictment?

16 MR. ILIC: [Interpretation] Yes, indeed, I'm

17 quite convinced. He had enough time to do so, and

18 before today's appearance, I again assured myself that

19 that was the case because we went through the

20 indictment once again.

21 JUDGE HUNT: And are you satisfied that he

22 understands that he does have 30 days within which to

23 plead, if he wishes, but that he may plead today, also

24 if he wishes to do so?

25 MR. ILIC: [Interpretation] Indeed, he has

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1 waived that right and he will plead today.

2 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you very much, indeed, for

3 your cooperation. You may sit down.

4 Ms. Paterson, what do you -- what's your

5 attitude towards the suggestion that the accused pleads

6 to all of the indictment at one time?

7 MS. PATERSON: Your Honour, I believe our

8 preference would be for him to plead to each count

9 individually, but if you find the one plea acceptable

10 and do a sufficient allocution so that it's clear he

11 fully understands that he is, in fact, pleading to each

12 and every count, we would have no objection to that.

13 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you very much.

14 Mr. Nikolic, would you stand up again,

15 please.

16 [The accused stands]

17 JUDGE HUNT: I'm going to ask you whether you

18 plead in the same way to all of the counts in the

19 indictment, and if you say that you do, I will then ask

20 you how you plead to each of the counts in the

21 indictment, that is, from 1 to 80, 8-0, inclusive. Do

22 you understand?

23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I do.

24 JUDGE HUNT: Do you intend to plead in the

25 same way to all of the counts in the indictment?

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1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I do.

2 JUDGE HUNT: How do you plead, guilty or not

3 guilty, to each and every one of the counts, being

4 numbered 1 to 80, 8-0 in the indictment; guilty or not

5 guilty?

6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Not guilty.

7 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you, sir. You may sit

8 down.

9 Is there anything else that I have to do

10 other than instruct the Registrar about a date for

11 hearing, Ms. Paterson?

12 MS. PATERSON: No, Your Honour. We would

13 just say, for the record, that -- in light of the fact

14 that Mr. Ilic has said that he is representing

15 Mr. Nikolic just for this appearance, we will delay

16 turning over the confirmation material until a

17 permanent attorney is appointed. We are prepared to

18 turn that material over late next week if a new

19 attorney is available, or whenever that occurs.

20 JUDGE HUNT: It may be that Mr. Ilic will

21 obtain instructions to accept them on behalf of his

22 client anyway.

23 MS. PATERSON: If that's the case, we're

24 prepared to provide the confirmation material by the

25 end of next week.

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1 JUDGE HUNT: Thank you. The Registrar is

2 instructed to set a date for trial, subject to any

3 further order of the Trial Chamber. In accordance with

4 the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the accused is

5 detained until further order.

6 I adjourn.

7 --- Whereupon the Initial Appearance

8 adjourned at 10.10 a.m.

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