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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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