Case: IT-03-67-PT

Date: 19 October 2006

 

IN TRIAL CHAMBER I

 

Before:

Judge Alphons Orie, Presiding

Judge Patrick Robinson

Judge Frank Höpfel

Registrar: Mr Hans Holthuis

Decision of: 19 October 2006

PROSECUTOR

v.

VOJISLAV ŠEŠELJ

 

___________________________________________________________________________

DECISION ON ORAL REQUEST OF THE ACCUSED FOR NEW DEADLINE TO FILE OBJECTIONS TO THE INDICTMENT

___________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Office of the Prosecutor

Ms Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff

Mr Dan Saxon

Mr Ulrich Müssemeyer

Counsel for Vojislav Šešelj

Mr David Hooper

Mr Andreas O’Shea

 

TRIAL CHAMBER I of the International Tribunal;

BEING SEISED OF an oral request made by the Accused at the Status Conference held on 19 May 2006;

NOTING that the Accused requested an extension of the deadline by which he could file his objections to the Modified Amended Indictment;

NOTING that the Accused submitted that he had not been allowed to object to the indictment, that he was "misled" by the Prosecution and the Trial Chamber II about the deadline for filing an objection to the indictment, and that, since he had received the supporting material only, according to his Submission, in February 2006, the deadline for filing objections to the indictment should have been calculated from February 2006;

NOTING that Trial Chamber II decided not to accept the Accused’s motion, filed in its English translation on 8 September 2005, made pursuant to Rule 72 of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence because it exceeded the word limit as set in the Practice Direction on the Length of Briefs and Motions;

NOTING that Trial Chamber II, by the same decision, ordered the Accused, in light of the "importance of an indictment and potential challenges to it", to file his objections to the indictment by 7 October 2005, but that the Accused did not do so;

NOTING that the Accused’s request for an extension of time to file objections to the indictment until 30 days after he had received translations in Serbo-Croatian of certain judgements of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, was denied;

CONSIDERING that the supporting material was disclosed to the Accused on three different dates, the last being 26 January 2006, and not, as the Accused claims, February 2006;

NOTING that Rule 72 (A) of the Rules provides, in relevant part, that preliminary motions, including those alleging defects in the form of the indictment, shall be brought no later than 30 days after disclosure by the Prosecution to the Defence of all material and statements referred to in Rule 66(A)(i) of the Rules;

CONSIDERING that 30 days from 26 January 2006 was 25 February 2006 and that the oral request was made on 19 May 2006;

CONSIDERING that the Accused made his oral request for an extension of time well after the expiry of the 30-day time period;

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS,

PURSUANT TO Rule 72 of the Rules,

HEREBY DENIES the Accused’s request.

 

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

 

 

______________________

Judge Alphons Orie

Presiding Judge

 

Dated this nineteenth day of October 2006

At The Hague

The Netherlands

 

 

[Seal of the Tribunal]