IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER
Before:
Judge Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba, Presiding
Judge Antonio Cassese
Judge David Anthony Hunt
Registrar:
Mrs. Dorothee de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh
Decision of:
17 November 1999
PROSECUTOR
v.
DRAGOLJUB KUNARAC
RADOMIR KOVAC
_______________________________________________________________________________
FURTHER DECISION ON REQUEST FOR PROVISIONAL
RELEASE OF DRAGOLJUB KUNARAC
_______________________________________________________________________________
Office of the Prosecutor:
Mr. Dirk Ryneveld
Ms. Peggy Kuo
Ms. Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff
Counsel for the Accused:
Mr. Slavisa Prodanovic for the accused Mr. Dragoljub Kunarac
Mr. Momir Kolesar for the accused Mr. Radomir Kovac
1. 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 ("International Tribunal") received a letter from the Government of the Republic of Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("the letter") on 12 November 1999. The letter bears the date of 12 November 1999. In the letter, the said Government expressed its commitment to comply with the orders of the Trial Chamber regarding the release of the accused Mr. Dragoljub Kunarac.
2. Since a response from the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not forthcoming, the Trial Chamber issued its "Decision on Request for Provisional Release of Dragoljub Kunarac" ("the Decision") on 11 November 1999. The Decision followed the "Request for Provisional Release of the Accused Mr. Dragoljub Kunarac" ("Request"), which was filed on 11 October 1999, and the "Prosecutions Response to the Request for Provisional Release of the Accused Mr. Dragoljub Kunarac", which was filed on 20 October 1999. Despite the letter having been filed a day after the issuance of the Decision, the Trial Chamber considers it appropriate to reconsider its Decision in light of the letter.
3. The Trial Chamber takes note of the various guarantees advanced in the letter. However, the guarantees do not affect the reasoning of the Trial Chamber in the Decision. In particular, the two main considerations in paragraph 7 of the Decision - that other indictees are still at large and that a reasonable danger might arise that potential witnesses would feel reluctant to participate in the trial were the accused to be released so close to the intended commencement of the trial - are unaffected by guarantees advanced in the letter.
4. The Trial Chamber is of the view that, in the circumstances of the present case, none of the factors put forward by the accused, either alone or in combination, amounts to exceptional circumstances within the ambit of Rule 65 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal.
11. For the foregoing reasons, pursuant to Rule 65, the Trial Chamber hereby confirms its Decision of 11 November 1999 to deny the Request.
Done in both English and French, the English version being authoritative.
_______________________________
Judge Mumba
Presiding
Dated this seventeenth day of November 1999,
At The Hague,
The Netherlands
[Seal of the Tribunal]