1 Thursday, 8 February 2001

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 --- Upon commencing at 10.05 a.m.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Will the registrar call the case, please.

6 THE REGISTRAR: Case number IT-95-9-PT, the Prosecutor versus

7 Blagoje Simic, Milan Simic, Miroslav Tadic, and Simo Zaric.

8 JUDGE ROBINSON: May we have the appearances.

9 MS. PATERSON: Yes, Your Honour. Nancy Paterson, representing the

10 Office of the Prosecutor. With me is Suzanne Hayden; Ms. Aisling Reidy,

11 who is going to be a new lawyer assisting us with this case; and Diane

12 Boles, the case manager.

13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much.

14 MR. ZECEVIC: Good morning, Your Honour. Slobodan Zecevic,

15 defence of Milan Simic.

16 MR. PANTELIC: Good morning, Your Honour. Igor Pantelic on behalf

17 of Mr. Miroslav Tadic.

18 MR. PISAREVIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour. I am

19 Borislav Pisarevic, representing Mr. Zaric.

20 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much. This is a Status Conference

21 pursuant to Rule 65. We are going to look at certain issues relating to

22 the case, and in particular to the trial.

23 I begin first with issues relating to readiness for trial.

24 Pre-Trial briefs. I note that the Prosecutor's brief was filed on the

25 31st of March, 1999. Defence briefs have not yet been filed. Now, that

1 was some time ago and there have been several developments, and it seems

2 to the Chamber that, in light of the passage of time, the changes to the

3 Rules, and the fact of the change in the number of accused before the

4 Chamber, that there should be new Pre-Trial briefs filed. So that's the

5 first matter. A new Pre-Trial brief would greatly facilitate the work of

6 the Chamber, as distinct from amended briefs.

7 The dates that the Chamber is looking at would be that the Office

8 of the Prosecutor would be given a time period of about roughly seven

9 weeks to file their brief, by Monday, the 26th of March; and the Defence a

10 month later, on the 23rd, Monday, the 23rd of April. Are there any

11 comments on that, either from the Prosecutor or from the Defence?

12 MR. ZECEVIC: Your Honour, an issue came around concerning the

13 statement or disclosure of the statement of Mr. Stevan Todorovic, the

14 statement which he gave to the Prosecution on 6th of November or during

15 that period of time, during his plea agreement negotiations. And it's, I

16 mean, in the best interests of the procedural economy that we receive the

17 transcript of his statement as soon as possible, that these be disclosed

18 to us, because this might, of course, have a tremendous impact on the way

19 how we are going to design our Defence briefs. Thank you very much.

20 JUDGE ROBINSON: Ms. Paterson?

21 MS. PATERSON: Well, Your Honour, I was intending to discuss this

22 issue and a few others that I wanted to bring to your attention today. As

23 far as the interviews with Mr. Todorovic, yes, we did have one on the 6th

24 of November, and we have had a couple of additional ones, and we have some

25 others scheduled, and anticipate, in fact, having several conversations

1 with Mr. Todorovic over the next few months.

2 I myself have not yet received the final version of the transcript

3 from the first interview, let alone the second and the third. As you can

4 imagine, it takes some time to prepare an accurate English transcript as

5 well as one in B/C/S, and we need to first do a rough draft and then get

6 those revised and finalised, so that we still are awaiting the transcripts

7 ourselves.

8 In addition, in simplest terms, the interviews that we're having

9 with Mr. Todorovic are very wide-ranging and don't all directly relate to

10 this case and to these accused. Admittedly, some portions do, and we

11 acknowledge that at some point in time it will be appropriate to make that

12 information available, but I would suggest that it's a bit premature at

13 this point in time to address that issue.

14 JUDGE ROBINSON: So my understanding is that the interviews are

15 wide-ranging, they constitute a process which is not yet complete, and

16 that the Prosecutor will make disclosure at the appropriate time.

17 MR. ZECEVIC: Thank you, Your Honour.

18 JUDGE ROBINSON: The next issue would be to set a date for the

19 Pre-Trial Conference, and we have in mind Wednesday, the 16th of May. The

20 important issue, of course, is the trial date, the possible trial date.

21 The Chamber has in mind a date in October. Now, it could be earlier.

22 That would depend on a number of factors over which, regrettably, the

23 Chamber does not have control, but it may be the case could be transferred

24 to another Chamber and that would facilitate its being heard earlier than

25 October, but that will depend on a number of developments relating to the

1 organisation of the Tribunal.

2 I turn next to matters not in dispute. Agreement was reached in

3 May of 1999 on several issues not in dispute. It's important that the

4 status of the agreement that was reached on those issues be not disturbed.

5 The only items of which the Chamber agreed to take judicial notice were

6 two items relating to the status of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The parties

7 should continue their efforts to reach agreement and make additional

8 submissions on agreements reached as appropriate, and the same dates that

9 have been set for the submission of briefs would be applicable.

10 I turn next to the witness list. The OTP had previously indicated

11 it would call 59 witnesses and had estimated that their evidence in-chief

12 would take about six weeks. This appears optimistic, and it would seem to

13 us that a possible total of 250 hours would be required for

14 examination-in-chief. At an average of 23 sitting hours a week, the OTP

15 case would take about 11 weeks, plus time for cross-examination.

16 Ms. Paterson, do you have any comments on that?

17 MS. PATERSON: As for the issue of the new pre-trial brief,

18 needless to say, we are not thrilled about the fact that we're now going

19 to have to redo what was a very major effort on our part. Yes, I

20 acknowledge that the Rules have changed, but I frankly don't know that

21 there's going to be that much from our perspective that's going to

22 change. But if you would like a new brief, obviously we'll submit a new

23 brief. That's not a problem.

24 As for the Pre-Trial Conference and the dates, again, I have

25 nothing to add on that other than to bring to the Court's attention that I

1 have expressed my intention to leave the Tribunal in May. In fact, I was

2 planning to have my last day be May 11th. I will discuss with my

3 supervisors, it may be that I can stay on at least until the 16th to be

4 here for the Pre-Trial Conference. Needless to say, having been the one

5 lawyer that's worked on this case from the beginning, it makes some sense

6 for me to stay, perhaps at least until then, to hand this case off to

7 whoever my successor will be. But clearly I will not be here for the

8 trial, especially if it's not going to start until October and last as

9 many weeks as you suggest it will. So that's something we'll have to work

10 out, obviously, in the Office of the Prosecutor.

11 I had discussed before Court with the Defence counsel the fact

12 that I also thought we needed to revisit the issue of facts of common

13 knowledge and facts that were not disputed. I think it was left somewhat

14 up in the air previously, so we've agreed among ourselves that we will

15 address that issue in the very near future in an attempt to resolve that

16 as expeditiously as possible.

17 In regard to our witness list, we have in fact looked at it, and

18 in light of the plea of Mr. Todorovic, I'm optimistic that we will be able

19 to shorten the witness list, and we'll certainly look at the possibility

20 of perhaps using 92 bis to submit some written statements rather than

21 calling all the witnesses. I still anticipate that we would call in the

22 range of 35 to 45 witnesses, but we can probably cut it down at least that

23 much, without committing myself to anything at this point in time.

24 Those would be my comments as to the issues you've raised. There

25 were two or three additional issues I would like to raise, but I'll wait

1 to do that when you've finished.

2 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much. So that the Chamber looks

3 forward to the new witness list which would obviously take account of the

4 developments in the Rules, the one that you mentioned, the Rule 92 bis,

5 which allows use of written statements and transcripts.

6 We haven't had any details yet about the number of witnesses to be

7 called by the Defence and the possible length of cases. Are you in a

8 position to give an indication? Mr. Pantelic.

9 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, Your Honour, but please allow me first to

10 address to your attention another issue which might be very important for

11 the discussion about all pre-trial arrangements and activities.

12 First of all, please allow me to ask our learned colleagues from

13 the Prosecution simple fact: Is Mr. Soldal, is again in your team, or it

14 is not? Because it came to our attention in our previous proceedings that

15 Mr. Soldal was released from his duty from the Office of the Prosecutor,

16 and he now resides somewhere in Denmark or whatever.

17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Ms. Paterson.

18 MS. PATERSON: No, that's incorrect. Mr. Soldal is still very

19 much employed with the Tribunal and is still assigned to team 5. You are

20 confusing him with Mr. Ole Brondum, who was the investigator --

21 MR. PANTELIC: My mistake, sorry.

22 MS. PATERSON: -- and the person that arrested Mr. Todorovic.

23 MR. PANTELIC: Excuse me. It was some very similar, this Nordic

24 family name, so it's my mistake. The reason why I am asking that is that

25 it seems to the Defence - in particular, to Tadic Defence - that we could

1 not be in position to prepare our pre-trial briefs in these time limits

2 without being informed about the contents of Mr. Todorovic's statements

3 which might be related to our clients in some events. So I urge once

4 again to the Office of the Prosecutor to provide us as soon as practicable

5 with this statement, of course with all deleted parts related to the other

6 cases, as usual, of course, in our communications.

7 Another issue which might be also very interesting is the, I would

8 say, rather new situation that we are facing here in the case law of this

9 Tribunal. It is the plea bargain agreement of Mr. Todorovic. As

10 Ms. Paterson said on last Status Conference of January 19, I quote, page

11 799, line 1:

12 "No, Your Honour. As you know, this is, as far as I know, only

13 the third plea that has taken place before the Tribunal, so the procedure

14 to be followed is still somewhat new to all of us."

15 And then, in relation to the second issue which I want to raise

16 now, the words of Honourable Judge Hunt on page 805, the same transcript.

17 Inter alia, he said:

18 "The agreement appears to contemplate that Mr. Todorovic will not

19 be sentenced until he has fulfilled all his obligations under the

20 agreement, one of which is to give evidence against other people,

21 including his co-accused. That in itself is a very real problem, because

22 if he does give his evidence before he is sentenced, then there will be an

23 even greater attack upon the credibility of that evidence, that he is

24 inflating his evidence or lying in order to get the greater degree of

25 mitigation."

1 In capacity of the officer of the Court, and following the general

2 principles of justice, I think that in previous practice of this Tribunal,

3 we are faced with a completely new situation. We are in joinder case, and

4 now one of the co-accused has pleaded guilty. The question is what would

5 be the impact of his statement to his own judicial destiny, I would say.

6 Who can guarantee that his statement and his words and statements are

7 true? And furthermore, Your Honour, please, I'm very much worried about

8 the position of the other co-accused in this case, because we are facing

9 now a certain factual and legal statement of one of the co-accused about

10 the very, I would say, wide definition of the crime of persecution,

11 because according to the previous joint motions of Todorovic Defence and

12 Prosecution, we are facing an absolutely new definition of the crime of

13 persecution, which is absorbing all other cases -- sorry.

14 JUDGE ROBINSON: I'm going to stop you now.

15 MR. PANTELIC: Yes.

16 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone to Judge Robinson, please.

17 JUDGE ROBINSON: The issues that you have raised --

18 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

19 JUDGE ROBINSON: The issues you have raised are not pertinent to

20 the Status Conference. They are issues to be taken up at the trial. I

21 mean, how Mr. Todorovic's statement will be perceived and assessed is not

22 a matter that's to be addressed now. So that's the end of that. Please

23 address this specific issue that I put to you, that is, the question of

24 the number of Defence witnesses and the length of cases, and no more of

25 this digression.

1 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, Your Honour. Well, in relation to the number

2 of possible witnesses, we are thinking about not more than, let's say, ten

3 witnesses and several, maybe three or four expert witnesses. My guess is

4 that in light this plea bargain agreement with Mr. Todorovic, we are

5 facing a quite simple case, because - allow me to say - more than 80 per

6 cent of the statements of witnesses were related to Mr. Todorovic, so it

7 is not left so important for the other co-accused.

8 JUDGE ROBINSON: Are you speaking on behalf of all the --

9 MR. PANTELIC: I'm speaking on behalf of my client --

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: Of your client, yes.

11 MR. PANTELIC: -- Mr. Tadic, at this moment, of course.

12 And another issue, Your Honour: I would be very happy - because

13 Defence has certain, I would say, technical and logistical problems with

14 the position and the policy of the registry - I would be very happy to

15 know whether we could take this schedule for, let's say, 80 or 90 per cent

16 for sure, because we have to reorganise our Defence teams, we have to pull

17 our gear in upper position and to be in a situation to be ready to fulfil

18 our obligations.

19 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. I think you can take the schedule, but let

20 me just consult with the senior legal officer.

21 [Trial Chamber and legal officer confer]

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. The dates can be taken as fixed. Of

23 course, the Chamber can't guarantee with absolute certainty --

24 MR. PANTELIC: I understand.

25 JUDGE ROBINSON: -- what will happen.

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1 MR. PANTELIC: I said there will be a certain --

2 JUDGE ROBINSON: But the sooner the case becomes ready for trial,

3 then the sooner it will be tried, so we should all work to meet the

4 timetable that has been set.

5 MR. PANTELIC: Yes. And also let me reiterate our position that

6 we are absolutely ready to cooperate with the Prosecutor with regard to

7 the non-disputable facts, as you suggested, and we have discussed that

8 issue prior to this Status Conference and we shall proceed with the

9 necessary steps.

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: I'd like to hear from the other counsel.

11 MR. ZECEVIC: Your Honour, the Defence of Milan Simic intended

12 previously to call between 12 and 15 witnesses, but I believe right now,

13 after the plea bargaining of Mr. Stefan Todorovic, we believe that the

14 more realistic figure will be 7 to 10 witnesses.

15 There is one other thing I would like to ask the Court, if I may.

16 Your Honour, you mentioned 23 sitting hours per week, as I believe there

17 is in the transcript.

18 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.

19 MR. ZECEVIC: I hope that the Court has considered the medical

20 health of my client, because we have -- we thought, the Defence of

21 Mr. Milan Simic thought that the Court understands that he, as

22 a hemiplegic, cannot sit in the Court longer than four hours a day

23 maximum. That is what -- we assumed that the Court have agreed with that,

24 because during the Rule 77 proceedings, it was held in that way, more or

25 less, if I may say.

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. I can assure you that we are sensitive to

2 that and we'll take that into account.

3 MR. ZECEVIC: Just for the estimation of the Trial Chamber how

4 long it will take; that is why I raise this question only.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. We will take account of Mr. Simic's health.

6 MR. ZECEVIC: Thank you very much.

7 MR. PISAREVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, on behalf of the

8 Defence of Mr. Zaric, we, for the last two and a half years, have been

9 working on this case and have been ready a long time ago to start the

10 trial. As far as the witnesses are concerned, we had envisaged 15 to 20

11 witnesses; however, this number will not be necessary. We expect to

12 stipulate some more facts with the Prosecution, and the number of

13 witnesses could be reduced to 10 to 15. And I will separately consider

14 the paragraph 92 bis, that is, not to call certain witnesses to come and

15 testify here.

16 As far as deadlines are concerned and scheduling, for scheduling

17 purposes it's enough time; however, I also need to point out that, for our

18 pre-trial brief, we really need the statement of Mr. Todorovic. We need

19 to have it in order to provide a full pre-trial brief, to be able to

20 respond to certain allegations or dispute certain facts that may have been

21 agreed on between the, between the OTP and the Defence of Mr. Todorovic,

22 and which we may want to bring into question. Thank you.

23 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, thank you very much. So we appear to be

24 looking at a total of about 25 to 27 Defence witnesses; and I think

25 Ms. Paterson said, what, about 35 to 45 Prosecution witnesses.

1 Can I turn, then, to the next item, the list of exhibits. 120

2 documents, three volumes, have already been admitted, and the Chamber will

3 now require a submission of the exhibit list in coordinating these and any

4 other known exhibits, and the same date that has been set for the

5 submission of the pre-trial brief will be applicable.

6 Turn next to witness protection. Facial distortion and pseudonyms

7 have already been approved for seven witnesses, but there was one other

8 witness, Witness I, that the Office of the Prosecutor was to report back

9 as to whether this witness would testify with facial distortion or would

10 seek closed session. It's such a long time ago, Ms. Paterson, I don't

11 know whether you recall this. Do you have any information on that?

12 MS. PATERSON: I do not have any I can give the Court today. As

13 you can imagine, we've attempted to keep in touch with all of our

14 witnesses over the past two years and, in fact, have plans to recontact

15 them all in the very near future, including this witness.

16 I don't want to commit myself one way or the other, but my

17 recollection is that this may, in fact, be one of the witnesses whom we

18 may not end up calling at all in light of Mr. Todorovic's plea, but I will

19 attempt to verify that and inform the Court as soon as possible, but I

20 don't anticipate that it will be a significant problem.

21 JUDGE ROBINSON: Okay. As you're on your feet, Ms. Paterson, the

22 next issue relates to you as well; that's the question of the disclosure

23 of the names of the protected witnesses. You haven't sought permission to

24 withhold the names. When did you plan to disclose the names of the

25 protected witnesses?

1 MS. PATERSON: Well, we would ask to follow essentially the same

2 procedure that's been adopted in several of the other trials. I know it's

3 varied a little bit from Chamber to Chamber, but I would ask that we be

4 given until, say, 30 days before the witness is going to testify, and then

5 we'll disclose it at that point in time.

6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Any comments on that from the Defence?

7 Thirty days would be reasonable, yes.

8 One other matter, Ms. Paterson: At the Status Conference in April

9 1999, it was agreed that you would amend the indictment immediately before

10 the start of the trial to remove the name of Blagoje Simic. I'm just

11 reminding you of this.

12 MS. PATERSON: Yes. I was thinking about that yesterday, Your

13 Honour. We would again ask to be permitted to wait until the eve of

14 trial. I still hold out some hope that perhaps Mr. Blagoje Simic will

15 join us here before the trial starts, but I have no information in that

16 regard at this point in time. So rather than perhaps amending it now, and

17 then if Mr. Simic were to come and then have to amend it again, I think

18 for everyone's sake it would be wise to just wait until the last minute.

19 We will go ahead and prepare it so that there will not be any problem when

20 the time comes.

21 JUDGE ROBINSON: If you have a hope, I wouldn't challenge that,

22 Ms. Paterson.

23 Are there any other matters that any of the parties would wish to

24 raise? Yes, Ms. Paterson.

25 MS. PATERSON: Yes, just a couple of relatively minor issues.

1 First of all, I'd like to have the record reflect that I did provide some

2 additional disclosure today to the Defence. I've spent the last couple of

3 weeks going through all of our material yet again and did come across two

4 items that, admittedly, we should have disclosed earlier, although none of

5 them, I think, are that significant or certainly have not damaged the

6 Defence opportunity to prepare their case.

7 When I realised that two of our witnesses, Dragan Lukac and

8 Sulejman Tihic, had given testimony at the trial of Dusan Tadic in May of

9 1996 and we did not turn over the transcript of that testimony, so we have

10 provided that today to all of the Defence counsel; however, as they will

11 acknowledge, they were very conscious of the two witnesses' testimony and

12 I know were watching their testimony as it was going on, so it certainly

13 is nothing new to them.

14 In addition, I just came across 25 pages of miscellaneous material

15 that had been provided to us by one of our witness. It relates to

16 documents from his trial in Bijeljina and some newspaper articles. That

17 has also been turned over to the Defence.

18 In addition, I have one additional document that has just come to

19 our attention within the last week or two. It was a document that was

20 seized by another one of the trial teams here, and I'm in the process of

21 trying to get copies available in English and B/C/S that I will attempt to

22 provide to Defence counsel later today so they will have that. And as far

23 as I can tell, that should then complete any outstanding disclosure

24 matters.

25 I also did take the time to review the transcript of the one

1 interview that we've had with Mr. Todorovic and confirmed that there is no

2 Rule 68 material contained in there that we would be obligated to

3 disclose.

4 I also wanted to bring to the attention of the Court that I had

5 sent Mr. Pisarevic a letter in November asking for some additional

6 reciprocal discovery from Mr. Zaric concerning a book that Mr. Zaric had

7 written and some comments that Mr. Zaric made in his book about material

8 that I believe falls under Rule 67(C) as reciprocal discovery.

9 I discussed this yesterday with Mr. Pisarevic, and apparently

10 Mr. Pisarevic's assistant, Mr. Lazarevic, received that letter, and I

11 think there was just some confusion. So Mr. Pisarevic and I have agreed

12 to meet next week and try and resolve this matter, so I think that will

13 work out.

14 However, I did just want to put on the record that we have

15 received some reciprocal discovery from all three accused. It's primarily

16 several books, and from the time it was Mr. Avramovic representing

17 Mr. Simic, I think it's approximately 28 documents. We have not received

18 any photographs, maps, diagrams, or other tangible objects, and I just

19 wanted to bring to the attention of the Defence counsel that that does

20 fall within the reciprocal discovery, and if they're intending to use that

21 at trial, I believe that they're obligated to make that available to us.

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: The Defence would be aware of their reciprocal

23 disclosure obligations.

24 MR. ZECEVIC: Yes, Your Honour.

25 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, Your Honour.

1 MS. PATERSON: I think, then, that that covers all the matters

2 that I wanted to bring to the attention of the Court at this time.

3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much, Ms. Paterson.

4 Senior legal officer.

5 [Trial Chamber and legal officer confer]

6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Any matters, any other matters from the Defence?

7 MR. ZECEVIC: Nothing, Your Honour.

8 MR. PANTELIC: Nothing, Your Honour.

9 MR. PISAREVIC: [Interpretation] No, Your Honour.

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: I would just like to stress, Ms. Paterson, that

11 all three Defence counsel have stressed the importance of getting

12 Mr. Todorovic's statement in order for them to make the necessary

13 preparations. This is obviously very necessary. You should take into

14 account, therefore, the schedule that has been set by the Court and make

15 every possible effort to have such parts of his statement as are relevant

16 to this trial ready and available for the Defence so that we can meet the

17 timetable that has been set.

18 MS. PATERSON: I am conscious of that fact, Your Honour, and just

19 as I explained earlier, the Court and the Defence counsel need to keep in

20 mind that when we, when we talk with Mr. Todorovic, we're obligated to

21 videotape and audiotape those statements. They then have to be

22 transcribed from the tapes into English and into B/C/S. As Your Honour is

23 well aware, the translation services here are extremely overburdened, so

24 that we have put in our requests, they know it's a priority, but there are

25 other trial matters that are being attended to, and we basically have to

1 wait until they get to our material. They are trying their best to

2 expedite that, and we will do everything that we can.

3 As I said, however, we do intend to have additional interviews

4 with Mr. Todorovic. As you're aware, Mr. Brashich, the attorney for

5 Mr. Todorovic, lives in the United States, so it is not easy for us to

6 find dates on which he can come over here and we can all meet at the same

7 time. There were restrictions imposed upon us as times and dates when we

8 can speak to Mr. Todorovic for security reasons. So all of these things,

9 unfortunately, make this whole matter string out longer than any of us

10 perhaps would like.

11 And I would like to just take the opportunity to clarify. As I

12 said, there are many, many things that we're discussing with Mr. Todorovic

13 that arguably are not relevant to these accused and to this case, so I'd

14 like a ruling from Your Honour that we are permitted to redact portions of

15 the transcripts and provide those to the Defence. I'd be happy, if you

16 would like, to make the full transcripts available to the Court if you

17 want to make sure that we're not redacting anything that we should be

18 disclosing, but for, I think, obvious reasons of confidentiality and other

19 significant issues, we should not be obligated to turn over the entire

20 transcripts and should have the opportunity to redact them appropriately.

21 JUDGE ROBINSON: The disclosures would be subject to the normal

22 redactions, yes.

23 Well, I take into account all of what you have said. The Chamber

24 is aware of the difficulties, but nonetheless, the effort should be made.

25 Yes.

1 MR. ZECEVIC: Your Honour, if I may address the Court. I would

2 like the -- I would like to state the following: Mr. Todorovic is not

3 just one of the witnesses because Mr. Todorovic has been one of the

4 co-accused, and therefore his testimony or his statement might reflect

5 many different -- or address to many different issues.

6 We would request, if possible, or ask the Prosecutor to give us

7 the material which they have in a way when it is redacted. We don't need

8 it to be translated to the B/C/S or to English. We can take it as it is -

9 of course, redacted material - so we, so we are not losing time in this

10 respect. Because if, for example, we receive -- only ten days before we

11 receive the pre-trial brief of the Prosecutor, we will not be able to

12 address, first of all, to do what needs to be done in a way of

13 investigating, probably getting some new witnesses, or whatever it's

14 needed for the defence of our clients, and at the same time prepare our

15 pre-trial brief. That is why I'm concerned about the time which is

16 available to us and to the Prosecutor to do all this. Thank you, Your

17 Honour.

18 JUDGE ROBINSON: Ms. Paterson, would that be feasible?

19 MS. PATERSON: Your Honour, I think that I have established in

20 the six and a half years I've been here at the Tribunal and the four years

21 I've been appearing in this -- three years I've been appearing in this

22 Chamber that we always act in good faith, that we're very conscious of our

23 obligations, and nothing has changed.

24 We appreciate the need to share this information; we will do so.

25 But I'm certainly not going to turn over a document in B/C/S that I can't

1 read. I'm obviously going to wait until I can fully read and understand

2 the transcript, make sure that it's correct, and then do an appropriate

3 redaction. I will do that as expeditiously as I possibly can. That's all

4 I can say, and the Court and the Defence will have to take me at my word.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, thanks very much.

6 If there are no other issues, we take the adjournment.

7 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at

8 10.47 a.m.

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