140203SE

Page 13

1 Monday, 3 February 2014

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellants enter court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 3.03 p.m.

6 JUDGE MERON: Please be seated.

7 [Appeals Chamber and registrar confer]

8 JUDGE MERON: Registrar, will you please call the case.

9 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honours. This is case

10 number IT-04-74-A, the Prosecutor versus Prlic et al.

11 JUDGE MERON: Let me begin by making sure that the audio

12 equipment is working properly. Let me ask the appellants whether they

13 hear the proceedings in a language they understand, beginning with

14 Mr. Prlic.

15 THE APPELLANT PRLIC: Yes, I understand well, Mr. President.

16 JUDGE MERON: Mr. Stojic.

17 THE APPELLANT STOJIC: [Interpretation] Yes, everything is all

18 right, Your Honour.

19 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

20 Mr. Praljak.

21 THE APPELLANT PRALJAK: Yes.

22 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

23 Mr. Petkovic.

24 THE APPELLANT PETKOVIC: [Interpretation] It's all right,

25 Your Honour.

Page 14

1 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

2 Mr. Coric.

3 THE APPELLANT CORIC: [Interpretation] Everything is fine,

4 Your Honour.

5 JUDGE MERON: Mr. Pusic.

6 THE APPELLANT PUSIC: Everything is fine, Your Honour.

7 JUDGE MERON: Thank you very much.

8 Counsel for the Prosecution.

9 MS. MARSDEN: Good afternoon, Mr. President. For the

10 Prosecution, Katharine Marsden, Laurel Baig, and our case manager,

11 Colin Nawrot.

12 JUDGE MERON: Thank you very much.

13 So we've already had the appearances of the Prosecution, and now

14 I will turn to the Defence.

15 For Mr. Prlic.

16 MS. TOMANOVIC: Good afternoon, Your Honours. Suzana Tomanovic,

17 co-counsel for Dr. Jadranko Prlic.

18 JUDGE MERON: Thank you, Ms. Tomanovic.

19 For Mr. Stojic, please.

20 MR. KHAN: Good afternoon, Mr. President. Mr. Stojic is

21 represented by Ms. Senka Nozica, lead counsel. I am co-counsel in the

22 case. My name is Karim Khan of Queen's Counsel.

23 JUDGE MERON: For Mr. Petkovic, please.

24 MS. ALABURIC: Good afternoon, Your Honour. I am Vesna Alaburic,

25 counsel for Mr. Milivoj Petkovic. And this young girl is

Page 15

1 Bettina Spilker, our legal counsel.

2 JUDGE MERON: Thank you very much.

3 MS. TOMASEGOVIC-TOMIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon,

4 Your Honour --

5 JUDGE MERON: I don't know if it is politically correct to call

6 somebody young girl, you are all young.

7 MS. ALABURIC: But she is really very young.

8 JUDGE MERON: For Mr. Coric, please.

9 MS. TOMASEGOVIC-TOMIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon,

10 Your Honour. For the Defence of Mr. Coric, Ms. Dijana Tomasegovic-Tomic,

11 lead counsel; and Drazen Plavec, co-counsel; as well as Stephane Bourgon

12 as legal advisor.

13 MR. SAHOTA: Mr. President, on behalf of Berislav Pusic, I

14 represent him today as co-counsel. My name is Raj Sahota, and I am

15 assisted by my learned colleague, Mr. Mulalic.

16 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

17 Thank you, all. As you are aware, Rule 65 bis (B) of the

18 Rules of Procedure and Evidence requires a Status Conference to be

19 convened within 120 days after the last Status Conference for each

20 appellant in the Tribunal's custody. A Status Conference serves two

21 primary purposes: First, it allows the appellants an opportunity to

22 express concerns relating to their detention conditions, and for the

23 Tribunal to inquire about the mental and physical condition of the

24 detained persons. Second, it provides an opportunity to the update the

25 appellants with respect to the status of their case.

Page 16

1 In the present case, the last Status Conference was held on

2 8 October 2013. Today's Status Conference is scheduled by an order filed

3 on 16 January 2014. Let me begin the Status Conference by inquiring into

4 the status of the detention conditions and health situation of the

5 appellants. If any of the appellants wishes, this discussion could take

6 place in closed sessions.

7 So let me start for Mr. Prlic. Mr. Prlic, do you have any

8 matters to raise?

9 Mr. Stojic, would you like to respond or Mr. Prlic himself?

10 Mr. Prlic.

11 THE APPELLANT PRLIC: No, I don't have any matter to raise.

12 Thank you.

13 JUDGE MERON: Thank you very much.

14 Mr. Praljak. My question was to Mr. Praljak.

15 THE APPELLANT PRALJAK: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I have

16 nothing to raise. Thank you.

17 JUDGE MERON: So now we will move to Mr. Petkovic.

18 THE APPELLANT PETKOVIC: [Interpretation] I have nothing to raise,

19 Your Honour.

20 JUDGE MERON: Mr. Coric.

21 THE APPELLANT CORIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, nothing to

22 raise. Thank you.

23 JUDGE MERON: Mr. Pusic.

24 THE APPELLANT PUSIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, no issues.

25 Whatever there is to say will be said be my Defence counsel. Thank you.

Page 17

1 JUDGE MERON: Let me repeat my question to Mr. Stojic. We don't

2 want to discriminate against you, I can assure you.

3 MR. STOJIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. It's

4 all right. I have no issues. Thank you.

5 JUDGE MERON: Thank you very much, and I'm glad that none of you

6 has problems in terms of your detention or health that you would like to

7 raise with me.

8 Recent procedural update of the case. The update, I recall that

9 the notices of appeal of Mr. Praljak and Mr. Pusic were filed on

10 20 June 2013 and that the notice of the appeal of the Prosecution was

11 filed on 27 August 2013. On 21 June 2013, upon a request of the parties,

12 I ordered that the notices of appeal of Mr. Prlic, Mr. Stojic,

13 Mr. Petkovic, and Mr. Coric be filed within 60 days of the issuance of

14 the official English translation of the trial judgement. I further

15 recall that I ordered Mr. Praljak, Mr. Pusic, and the Prosecution to file

16 their appeal briefs no later than 135 days from the issuance of the

17 official English translation of the trial judgement and that as a result

18 there is a harmonised briefing schedule in place for all parties.

19 I note that the decision on the filings pertaining to the motions

20 filed by the Prosecution and Mr. Pusic concerning the latter's

21 Notice of Appeal, filed on 15 and on 26 July 2013, respectively, will be

22 delivered in due course.

23 On 3 October 2013, Mr. Praljak filed a public motion requesting a

24 stay of proceedings until he receives the translation of various

25 documents into a language he understands, which is B/C/S.

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1 On 4 October 2013, Mr. Praljak filed a public motion requesting

2 the assignment of his formerly Tribunal-paid counsel under the Tribunal's

3 legal aid provisions that apply to level 3 cases. I note that the

4 Appeals Chamber has received all filings pertaining to these matters and

5 will deal with Mr. Praljak's requests of 3 and 4 October in due course.

6 On 20 January 2014, the Registrar filed a public application for

7 the recovering of legal aid and funds from Mr. Praljak.

8 On 27 January 2014, Mr. Praljak filed his response requesting the

9 Appeals Chamber to deny the application and to order the Registrar to

10 provide him with the details, specification of the costs spent on his

11 Defence.

12 Issues raised by the parties.

13 At this point I would like to ask the parties whether they have

14 any issues that they would like to raise at this time.

15 Mr. Khan.

16 MR. KHAN: Mr. President --

17 JUDGE MERON: Let me start from the Prosecution.

18 Are there any issues the Prosecution would like to raise?

19 MS. MARSDEN: No, Your Honour.

20 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

21 And of the appellants, let me ask that in order.

22 Mr. Prlic.

23 I will come to you, Mr. Praljak.

24 Mr. Prlic.

25 MS. TOMANOVIC: Your Honour?

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1 JUDGE MERON: Yes. Yes, please.

2 MS. TOMANOVIC: [Interpretation] I have a question to ask, if I

3 may.

4 JUDGE MERON: Sorry, I could not hear you. Could you kindly

5 repeat? I had a problem. Please.

6 MS. TOMANOVIC: [Interpretation] I would like to ask just one

7 question. After the judgement, the Registrar informed us that the

8 English translation of the judgement would be finished by June 2014 at

9 the latest. I would like to know if there is an update with this regard,

10 and if not, if it would be possible for the Registrar to inform us at

11 least 30 days in advance of the completion of the translation so that we

12 may be able to organise our work back home since a dead-line of two

13 months for an announcement of the -- of a notice of appeal is not a long

14 time. Especially bearing in mind the bulk of the judgement, about four

15 and a half thousand pages.

16 JUDGE MERON: Actually, as of this morning the expectation was

17 that the English translation would in fact become available in June 2014.

18 As it is, I've instructed my staff this morning to check with the

19 Registrar that there are no changes. This is information which I have

20 received as late as December, so I do hope that it's still valid. If

21 not, I see your point about being informed prior to the completion of the

22 translation so you can prepare. It's a very reasonable one and we will

23 try to respect it.

24 MS. TOMANOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, President.

25 JUDGE MERON: Mr. Stojic.

Page 20

1 MS. NOZICA: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I only have one

2 request. If possible, since our defendant does not speak English, it

3 would be extremely useful for him, as he wants to take part in the appeal

4 proceedings, for a -- it will be good for him for a Croatian translation

5 of the judgement to be available as soon as possible. We would kindly

6 ask you to exert influence to the effect that a Croatian translation

7 become possible -- become available as soon as possible, if not at the

8 same time as the English translation, so that it may be used during the

9 appeals proceedings. Thank you.

10 JUDGE MERON: I will do everything I can to make sure that the

11 Croatian translation would be available if not at the same time as the

12 English one, very soon thereafter.

13 [Trial Chamber and legal officer confer]

14 JUDGE MERON: We will work on that.

15 MS. NOZICA: Thank you.

16 JUDGE MERON: Okay. Now we will move on to Mr. Praljak.

17 THE APPELLANT PRALJAK: [Interpretation] Your Honour, Judge Meron,

18 I did not request a specification of costs. It was the Tribunal that

19 requested that from the Registrar to know what the Registrar thinks, I

20 owe him. I never requested anything like that because I refuse any idea

21 that I lied and concealed anything. I have no money to pay for the

22 proceedings.

23 In the letter I sent to you and in previous documents, I only

24 requested the proceedings against me to be just; in other words, that the

25 other side also be heard and that its arguments be taken into account.

Page 21

1 Unfortunately, the Registrar did not do that. Their reason was that

2 there was no money and unfortunately the judgement was passed without me

3 in any -- or, rather, the decision was taken without me in any way being

4 able to influence it.

5 I kindly ask that you, or the Appeals Chamber too, hear the other

6 side too, to take into consideration my arguments. I state that a huge

7 campaign was waged against me by the Registrar, a campaign that abounded

8 in untruthful allegations.

9 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

10 [Trial Chamber and legal officer confer]

11 JUDGE MERON: We expect that a reply from the Registrar to a

12 response [Microphone not activated] week or so -- sorry. I apologise.

13 We are awaiting a reply from the Registrar to the response which

14 you submitted on 27 January, and we hope that it will come before long

15 and then we will be able to decide on this matter. We hope that maybe

16 next week we'll be getting something from the Registrar. So I can assure

17 you that we are not neglecting it. We are working on it.

18 THE APPELLANT PRALJAK: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour,

19 Mr. Meron. I hope in all honesty that the documents in my response to

20 the Prosecution, which amounts to 103 pages, will at least be gone

21 through so that someone has a look at it. No matter what your decision

22 may be, I will accept it. But that the decision would be made without

23 ever gaining insight into my documentation, well, I apologise, but I

24 think I've already communicated my position in a letter sent to you

25 previously.