Case No. IT-95-13/1-PT

The Prosecutor v. Sljivancanin et. al.

DECISION

THE REGISTRAR,

CONSIDERING the Statute of the Tribunal as adopted by the Security Council under Resolution 827 (1993), and in particular Article 21 thereof;

CONSIDERING the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (hereinafter "the Rules") as adopted by the Tribunal on 11 February 1994, as subsequently amended, and in particular Rules 44 and 45 thereof;

CONSIDERING the Directive on Assignment of Defence Counsel (hereinafter "the Directive"), as subsequently amended, and in particular, Articles 6, 8, 10, and 11(B) thereof;

CONSIDERING the Code of Professional Conduct for Counsel (hereinafter "the Code of Conduct") as subsequently amended, and in particular, Article 14;

CONSIDERING that Mr. Veselin Sljivancanin (hereinafter "the accused") was transferred to the United Nations Detention Unit on 1 July 2003, and that pursuant to Rule 62 of the Rules the initial appearance of the accused was held scheduled on 10 July 2003;

CONSIDERING that the accused elected in writing to represent himself during the aforementioned initial appearance;

CONSIDERING that in accordance with Article 21 of the Statute, an accused has the right to legal assistance of his own choosing, and to be assigned legal assistance in any case where the interests of justice so require, without payment if the accused does not have sufficient means to remunerate counsel;

NOTING however that the accused’s right to choose counsel, as provided for in Article 21 of the Statute, is not absolute and must be exercised within the confines of the legal aid system applied by the Tribunal;

CONSIDERING that on 23 September 2003, the accused requested the Registry to assign Mr. Novak Lukic, attorney at law from Belgrade, as his lead counsel;

CONSIDERING that Mr. Lukic is currently listed on the Rule 45 list of counsel who are eligible to be assigned to indigent accused;

CONSIDERING however, that Mr. Lukic is currently assigned to represent the accused Mr. Miroslav Tadic, and that the case of Mr. Tadic is currently pending judgement;

CONSIDERING that in accordance with Article 14(E) of the Code of Conduct, Mr. Lukic has received the consent of both accused to represent them, and that Mr. Lukic will clarify his position on the defence team of Mr. Tadic once the judgement has been issued in that case;

CONSIDERING that Article 7 of the Directive stipulates that an accused requesting the assignment of counsel is required to submit a declaration of means;

CONSIDERING further that for the purpose of establishing whether the accused is indigent or partially indigent and thus satisfies the requisite conditions for assignment of counsel, the Registrar may inquire into his means, and request the gathering of any information or the production of any documentation to verify the request and the information set out in the accused’s declaration of means;

CONSIDERING that the accused submitted his declaration of means to the Registry on 7 July 2003;

CONSIDERING that the right of the accused to counsel should not be affected while the Registrar examines the declaration of means, as set out in Article 7, and the information obtained pursuant to Article 10 of the Directive;

DECIDES pursuant to Article 11(B) of the Directive to assign Mr. Novak Lukić as counsel to the accused on a temporary basis for a period of not more than 60 days from the date of this decision, pending the Registrar’s determination of the financial status of the accused.

Hans Holthuis
Registrar

Dated this 29th day of September 2003
At The Hague
The Netherlands