IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before: Judge Richard May, Presiding

Judge Mohamed Bennouna

Judge Patrick Robinson

Registrar: Mrs. Dorothee de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh

Decision of: 1 March 1999

 

PROSECUTOR

v.

DARIO KORDIC
MARIO CERKEZ

__________________________________________

DECISION ON DEFENCE MOTION TO DISMISS OR ALTERNATIVELY
TO ORDER THE PROSECUTOR TO ELECT BETWEEN COUNTS

__________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor

Mr. Geoffrey Nice
Mr. Rodney Dixon

Counsel for the Accused

Mr. Mitko Naumovski, Mr. Leo Andreis, Mr. David F. Geneson, Mr. Turner T. Smith, Jr., and Ms. Ksenija Turkovic, for Dario Kordic
Mr. Bozidar Kovacic
, for Mario Cerkez

 

THIS TRIAL 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 International Tribunal"),

BEING SEISED of the "Joint Defence Motion to Dismiss or Alternatively to Order the Prosecutor to Elect Between Counts" ("the Motion"), filed by counsel for the accused, Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez (together "the Defence ") on 22 January 1999, and the Prosecutor’s Response to Joint Defence Motion to Dismiss or, Alternatively to Order the Prosecutor to Elect Between Counts ("the Response") filed by the Office of the Prosecutor ("the Prosecution") on 5 February 1999,

NOTING the written submissions of the parties and their oral arguments heard on 16 February 1999,

CONSIDERING that the Indictment meets the requirements of Article 18, paragraph 4, of the Statute of the International Tribunal ("Statute") and Rule 47 (C) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal,

CONSIDERING that the Prosecutor may be justified in bringing cumulative charges when the Articles of the Statute referred to are designed to protect different values and when each Article requires proof of a legal element not required by the others, and that in the instant case both requirements are met,

CONSIDERING that cumulative charging has been permitted in the practice of the International Tribunal,

 

PURSUANT TO Rule 72 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal,

HEREBY DISMISSES THE MOTION.

 

Done in English and French, the English text being authoritative.

_____________________________

Richard May

Presiding

Dated this first day of March 1999

At The Hague

The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]