Case No. IT-04-74-PT

BEFORE THE PRE-TRIAL JUDGE

Before:
Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti

Registrar:
Mr Hans Holthuis

Order of:
24 January 2006

THE PROSECUTOR

v.

JADRANKO PRLIC
BRUNO STOJIC
SLOBODAN PRALJAK
MILIVOJ PETKOVIC
VALENTIN CORIC
BERISLAV PUSIC

_________________________________________________

ORDER DIRECTING THE PROSECUTION TO COMPLY WITH THE PROVISIONS OF ORDINARY PROCEEDINGS

_________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr Kenneth Scott

Defence Counsel:

Mr Michael Karnavas and Ms Suzana Tomanovic for Jadranko Prlic
Mr Tomislav Kuzmanovic and Ms Senka Nozica for Bruno Stojic
Ms Vesna Alaburic for Milivoj Petkovic
Mr Tomislav Jonjic for Valentin Coric
Mr Fahrudin Ibrisimovic for Berislav Pusic

The Accused:

Slobodan Praljak

 

I, Jean-Claude Antonetti, Judge 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 ("Tribunal");

NOTING the Statute;

NOTING the Rules of Procedure and Evidence ("Rules") and, in particular, Rule 65 ter thereof;

CONSIDERING that the Scheduling Order of 21 November 2005 ordered the Prosecution, pursuant to Rule 65 ter(E)(ii) and (iii) of the Rules, to file its pre-trial brief as well as the list of witnesses and exhibits by 19 January 2006;

CONSIDERING that the Order of 30 November 2005 set out for the Prosecution the guidelines for drawing up the lists of witnesses and exhibits in a summary table;

CONSIDERING that on 19 January the Prosecution filed its pre-trial brief as well as the lists of witnesses and exhibits with the Registry;

CONSIDERING that a review of the lists leads to the conclusion that, on the whole, there was little compliance with the prescribed guidelines as to the cross-referencing of witnesses and exhibits to the paragraphs of the Indictment and pre-trial brief;

CONSIDERING that it is pertinent to remind the Prosecution of the raison d’être and substance of the Order of 30 November 2005:

CONSIDERING therefore, and in view of the specificity of this case, that the list of witnesses and exhibits which the Prosecution is required to provide must allow the pre-trial Judge, and at a later date the Judges of the Chamber and the Defence, to have both an overview and specific details about all the evidence to be presented during the trial;

CONSIDERING that it is thus necessary for the Judges of the Chamber and the parties to have a witness and exhibit summary table divided into three parts so that a complete horizontal reading is possible, the first part indicating the counts and the two others the accused’s criminal responsibility under Articles 7(1) and/or 7(3) of the Statute of the Tribunal and a witness sheet for each testimony;

CONSIDERING that the summary table must be filed electronically in Microsoft EXCEL format in order to allow practical and complete use of all the information relevant for drawing up the list of witnesses and exhibits and that when preparing the summary table guidelines must be followed;

CONSIDERING that the need for a horizontal reading of the lists of witnesses and exhibits in relation to the factual basis and counts of the Indictment and to the criminal responsibility of each of the six accused was stated clearly and in detail;

CONSIDERING that the Prosecution, in failing to provide, at least, a link between the witnesses and exhibits supporting the facutal basis of the Indictment, has clearly failed to comply with the Order of 30 November 2005;

CONSIDERING that the pre-trial Judge shall submit to the Chamber a complete file consisting of all the filings of the parties;

CONSIDERING that the Chamber, pursuant to Rule 73 bis(C) of the Rules, and in the light of this file, shall determine the number of witnesses the Prosecutor may call and the time available for presenting evidence;

CONSIDERING that, in order to comply with this requirement, the pre-trial Judge and the Judges of the Chamber must have a clear idea of the relevance to the Indictment of the witnesses to be called to testify and of the duration of the examination in light of the documents that may be presented to the witnesses;

CONSIDERING that it should be noted at this stage that the Defence Counsel for the Accused have challanged all the Prosecution motions as regards the implementation of Rules 67, 92 bis and 94 of the Rules;

CONSIDERING furthermore that, in its submission, the Prosecution has listed 399 witnesses and 9490 exhibits;

CONSIDERING that it should be noted at this stage that the number of witnesses and documents involved will lead to an unconventional trial of a magnitude unknown at the Tribunal;

CONSIDERING that the conduct of such a trial along the procedural lines of common law calls for efficient management from the start to prevent a breakdown of the proceedings;

CONSIDERING that the parties must comply strictly with the directions of the pre-trial Judge or be sanctioned pursuant to Rule 65 ter(N) of the Rules;

CONSIDERING that if the Prosecution, for either technical or other reasons, is reasonably unable to comply with all the requirements for drawing up the table requested in the Order of 30 November 2005, the Prosecution shall inform the pre-trial Judge accordingly as soon as possible;

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS,

ORDER the Prosecution to file the table as requested in the Order of 30 November 2005 by 25 February 2006.

 

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

__________
Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti
Pre-Trial Judge

Done this twenty-fourth day of January 2006
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]