IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER
Before:
Judge Richard May, Presiding
Judge Patrick Robinson
Judge O-Gon Kwon
Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis
Decision of:
29 January 2004
PROSECUTOR
v.
JOVICA STANISIC
FRANKO SIMATOVIC
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DECISION ON SUBMISSION OF AMENDED INDICTMENT; DEFENCE PRELIMINARY MOTION (JOVICA STANISIC); AND MOTION ON DEFECT IN THE AMENDED INDICTMENT (FRANKO SIMATOVIC)
__________________________________________________
The Office of the Prosecutor
Mr. Dermot Groome
Ms. Melissa Pack
Counsel for the Accused
Mr. Gerardus Godefridus Johannes Knoops, for Jovica Stanisic
Mr. Zoran Jovanovic, for Franko Simatovic
THIS TRIAL CHAMBER of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 ("International Tribunal"),
BEING SEISED OF the "Defence Preliminary Motion" filed by the Defence of Jovica Stanisic on 5 January 2004 and the "Motion on Defect in the Amended Indictment" filed by the Defence of Franko Simatovic on 7 January 2004 (collectively, the "Motions"), both requesting an order that the phrase "included, but were not limited to" be deleted from paragraph 3 of the Amended Indictment dated 9 December 2003 ("Amended Indictment") against Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic (collectively, the "Accused),1
NOTING the “Prosecution’s Response to Simatovic Defence Preliminary Motion Dated 5 January 2004 and to Stanisic Defence Motion on Defect in the Amended Indictment Dated 7 January 2004" filed by the Office of the Prosecutor ("Prosecution") on 16 January 2004, requesting the Motions to be denied,
NOTING that the Defence of the Accused filed preliminary motions on 3 September 2003 against the initial indictment dated 1 May 2003 ("Initial Indictment"), pursuant to Rule 72 (A)(ii) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal ("Rules"), which governs defects in the form of the indictment, 2
NOTING that the Trial Chamber rendered its decision on 14 November 2003 ("Decision"), which explicitly specified the paragraphs that the Prosecution was ordered to amend and that paragraph 3 of the Initial Indictment was not one of those paragraphs,3
NOTING that no application for certification for interlocutory appeal of the Decision was filed pursuant to Rule 72 (B) of the Rules,
NOTING FURTHER that, pursuant to Rule 50 of the Rules governing amended indictments, the Accused is entitled to file preliminary motions pursuant to Rule 72 of the Rules in respect of new charges,4
CONSIDERING that the Prosecution submitted the Amended Indictment on 9 December 2003 clarifying the ambiguities in the specified paragraphs of the Initial Indictment, as ordered in the Decision, and containing no other amendments,
CONSIDERING that the Decision was rendered after the Trial Chamber had reviewed the alleged defects raised by the Defence of the Accused, including the current matter of the phrase "included, but were not limited to," 5
CONSIDERING that the Accused is not raising a matter in respect to new charges related to the amendments in the Amended Indictment and, in effect, is seeking re-consideration of a matter which has already been determined by the Trial Chamber,
PURSUANT TO Rules 50 and 54 of the Rules,
HEREBY ORDERS that the Amended Indictment is the operative indictment against the Accused and DISMISSES the Motions.
Done in English and French, the English text being authoritative.
____________
O-Gon Kwon
Judge
Dated this twenty-ninth day of January 2004
At The Hague
The Netherlands
[Seal of the Tribunal]