Before:
Judge Alphons Orie, Presiding
Judge Amin El Mahdi
Judge Rafael Nieto-Navia

Registrar:
Mr Hans Holthuis

Decision of:
16 October 2002

PROSECUTOR
v.
STANISLAV GALIC

_____________________________________

Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Mark Ierace

Counsel for the Defence:

Ms. Mara Pilipovic
Mr. Stephane Piletta-Zanin

TRIAL CHAMBER I Section B (“the 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 Tribunal”);

NOTING the decision of 16 November 2001, whereby Trial Chamber I ordered the parties to “submit a joint document of stipulated facts, signed by both parties ”, which would state all the agreed points, “including those contained in the document on stipulated facts submitted by the Prosecution on 26 October, those agreed during the Spre-trial conferenceC and other new points which the parties may consider of relevance to this trial”;

NOTING that the list of stipulated facts submitted by the Prosecution on 26 October 2001 was signed by both parties and filed on 4 December 2001;¹

NOTING that the parties were unable to submit a written document summarising the points they had agreed upon during the pre-trial conference held on 8 and 12 November 2001;²

NOTING that the Prosecution case ended on 2 August 2002;

NOTING that, pursuant to Rules 65 ter and 73 ter of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (“the Rules”), a status conference was held on 20 September 2002 and a pre-defence conference was held on 3 October 2002;

CONSIDERING that the Chamber, in view notably of the arguments presented by the Defence in its Motion for Judgement of Acquittal,³ invited the parties to meet and endeavour to reach further points of agreement before the Defence case starts,⁴ if necessary with the assistance of the Chamber;⁵

NOTING that the Defence case started on 7 October 2002;

NOTING that no progress had been made by the parties on this point on 9 October 2002;⁶ that a meeting with Judge Orie , acting as a pre-trial judge pursuant to Rule 65ter (I), took place on 10 October 2002 (“the Meeting”) to discuss the matter;

CONSIDERING that points of agreement would help expedite the trial;

CONSIDERING that the parties conceded at the Meeting that an agreement could be expected on various points, including:

(i) a detailed description of those parts of the confrontation lines which are agreed upon and those which are contested between the parties,

(ii) whether victims of the scheduled sniping incidents were hit by a bullet/projectile ,

(iii) some of the circumstances under which the scheduled shelling incidents occurred, such as, for instance, whether scheduled shelling incident No. 1 occurred as a football match was ongoing,

(iv) facts such as the date when the tunnel from Dobrinja to Butmir was open, or the date when the total exclusion zone came into effect;

CONSIDERING that the parties were encouraged to seek further points of agreement ;

NOTING that the Prosecution requested the opportunity to examine the originals of SRK documents the Defence intends to tender as exhibits, before giving its final position as to their authenticity; that it further requested information as to where the documents were found;⁷

NOTING that the Defence indicated that the originals of the documents are in Banja Luka and accessible to the Prosecution;⁸

CONSIDERING that the Prosecution expressed its intention to nevertheless contest the authenticity of all SRK documents unless it has specific information on where they were obtained;⁹

CONSIDERING that it was agreed at the Meeting that the Defence would submit detailed information on the origin of the SRK documents to be tendered within the next two weeks of trial and more general information on the other SRK documents listed in the Defence exhibit list, specifying in particular whether these documents were obtained by the Defence investigators directly or whether the Defence found them in the archives-depository of Banja Luka;

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS,

PURSUANT to Rule 54, 65 ter and 73 ter of the Rules ;

REQUESTS that

(1) the parties submit a joint document, signed by both parties, as soon as possible and not later than within ten days of this decision, stating all the agreed points reached by the parties, including those matters raised at the Meeting and summarised in this decision;

(2) the parties pursue their efforts to identify further points of agreement and to submit a report on the progress made every fifteen (15) days from the date of this decision, until further notice by the Chamber;

(3) the Defence provides the Prosecution with a written document indicating where the Defence obtained the SRK documents; such written document shall be submitted as soon as possible, and not later than 18 October 2002 in respect of the documents to be tendered within the next two weeks of trial, and not later than 31 October 2002 regarding the remaining SRK documents to be tendered.

Done this sixteenfth day of October 2002
At The Hague,
The Netherlands.

______________________
Alphons Orie
Presiding Judge, Trial Chamber

[Seal of the Tribunal]