Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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1 Wednesday, 15 June 2005

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open Session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 2.17 p.m.

6 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, everyone.

7 Registrar, could you call the case, please.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. This is case number

9 IT-95-9-A, the Prosecutor versus Mr. Simic.

10 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Mr. Simic, can you hear and follow

11 proceedings in a language that you can understand?

12 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Yes.

13 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. Could we have the

14 appearances, please. First of all the Prosecution.

15 MR. WIRTH: Good afternoon, Your Honours. This is Steffen Wirth

16 appearing for the Prosecution, together with Senior Appeals Counsel Norman

17 Farrell, and our case manager today is Ms. Susan Grogan.

18 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. Now I'm turning to the

19 Defence, Mr. Simic's Defence.

20 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. Igor

21 Pantelic, a lawyer in Belgrade, and my colleague is going to introduce

22 himself straight away. Thank you.

23 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

24 MR. MURPHY: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, sir. Peter Murphy

25 for the Defence as well.

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1 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

2 This is a Status Conference organised in line with Article 65 bis

3 (B) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal.

4 According to that, as I was saying, a Status Conference should be held

5 within 120 days following the launching of an appeal, then once again

6 every 120 days, giving the appellant the possibility to raise any issues

7 of importance, including information about the appellant's mental and

8 physical health.

9 In this case, Mr. Simic launched an appeal against the sentence

10 passed on the 17th of October, 2003. All of the submissions were

11 submitted, and this is the fifth Status Conference with regard to this

12 appeal.

13 Mr. Simic, or perhaps the Defence on behalf of Mr. Simic, would

14 you like to raise any issues pertaining to the conditions of detention or

15 the defendant's state of health?

16 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I have no objections

17 to the conditions at the Detention Unit, and at the moment I have no

18 health issues to report to you either.

19 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. You may sit

20 down.

21 As to the state of progress of this appeal, all of the submissions

22 have been filed, and there are no requests pending at the moment before

23 the Trial Chamber. No date has been set as yet for an appeal hearing. So

24 I don't have any special issues to address. Parties may have comments, so

25 I would like to know whether you have any comments or any questions.

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1 The Prosecution, please.

2 MR. WIRTH: Thank you, Your Honour. We have nothing to raise.

3 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.

4 The Defence.

5 MR. MURPHY: Your Honour, there is one matter that I will mention

6 tentatively, not knowing whether it will be of importance or not.

7 Your Honour may be aware that of the decision in the case of

8 Radoslav Brdjanin, on the Prosecution's -- the motion to dismiss ground 1

9 of the Prosecutor's appeal, which was issued by the President on the 5th

10 of May, 2005, Your Honour, this decision deals with certain aspects of the

11 law relating to joint criminal enterprise, specifically the issue as to

12 whether a joint criminal enterprise must include the physical perpetrators

13 of the criminal acts.

14 The President called on the Association of Defence Counsel to

15 present an amicus curiae brief on that issue.

16 Your Honour, Mr. Pantelic and I have not yet had the opportunity

17 of reviewing that brief, nor do we know whether it has been filed, but --

18 and it may be that it raises no issues directly related to our case, but

19 clearly the President has indicated that it is a matter of some

20 importance, because even though it was not pursued by the Prosecution

21 before the Trial Chamber in the Brdjanin case, it was ruled to be a

22 question which may affect the jurisprudence of the Tribunal and one which,

23 therefore, the Appeals Chamber would consider.

24 Your Honour, if -- if it should be the case that this issue is in

25 some way relevant to this appeal, we might want to take the opportunity to

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1 mention that before the hearing of this case so that judicial time is not

2 consumed unduly in hearing the issues when perhaps they might be heard

3 with greater precision at a later date.

4 Your Honour, as soon as we are in a position to address the Court

5 on that question, if it does appear necessary, we may seek leave to file

6 an appropriate motion at that time.

7 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, sir. As you've just

8 indicated, it may well be that the matter you've raised does not really

9 have a direct link to today's case, but if I'm not mistaken, we still do

10 not have a finalised report on that. So I have taken note of what you've

11 just said, and I believe that's all we can do for the time being.

12 MR. MURPHY: Thank you, Your Honour.

13 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.

14 Since there don't seem to be any other issues pending, this Status

15 Conference can now be adjourned.

16 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned

17 at 2.27 p.m.

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