Page 55
1 Thursday, 31 January 2002
2 [Provisional Release Hearing]
3 [Open session]
4 [The accused entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 4.34 p.m.
6 JUDGE LIU: Call the case, please, Madam Registrar.
7 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honours. This is case number
8 IT-01-42-PT, the Prosecutor versus Miodrag Jokic.
9 JUDGE LIU: May we have the appearances please. For the
10 Prosecution?
11 MS. SOMERS: Thank you very much, Your Honour. Susan L. Somers,
12 lead counsel for the Prosecution. To my right, extreme right, Mr. John
13 Cencich of the investigative team; Mr. Massimo Scaliotti, a trial partner;
14 and Mr. Vladimir Tochilovsky, also a trial lawyer; Ms. Susan Grogan, our
15 case manager. Thank you.
16 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much. For Defence?
17 MR. JONES: Your Honours, my name is Alun Jones.
18 JUDGE LIU: Thank you. Could I turn to the representative from
19 the government of Serbia.
20 MR. BATIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I'm Vladan Batic,
21 Justice Minister in the government of the Republic of Serbia.
22 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much. You may sit down, please.
23 This hearing is for the provisional release for Mr. Jokic. This
24 Trial Chamber has been seized of these two motions. One is the motion for
25 the provisional release for Mr. Jokic filed on 18th December 2001.
Page 56
1 Another one is the Prosecution's filing, that is, the response to the
2 motion for the provisional release of Mr. Jokic.
3 First of all, we would like to hear from the Defence counsel about
4 their views concerning this very matter. We have received your motion
5 already. I guess all of us have already read the contents. I hope in a
6 few minutes you could sum up the main contents of your motion.
7 MR. JONES: Certainly, Your Honour. My application, or my motion,
8 is a short and simple one. Your Honours, as the Court knows, Admiral
9 Jokic, who is a retired vice-admiral of the Yugoslav navy, he voluntarily
10 presented himself to the Tribunal on the 12th of November of 2001. He did
11 that of his own free will. He is a married man who lives in Belgrade with
12 his wife and one of their two children. It is my submission to the
13 Tribunal that he is entitled, as of right, to provisional release under
14 Rule 65 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.
15 Your Honours, I place weight on the following facts: that under
16 Rule 65(B), release may be ordered by a Trial Chamber only after hearing
17 the host country and only if it is satisfied the accused will appear for
18 trial and, if released, will not pose a danger to any victim, witness, or
19 other person.
20 Your Honours, the Court can be, and can only be, in my submission,
21 satisfied that those conditions are met, because there is no material
22 presented to the contrary by the Prosecutor. It is not suggested by the
23 Prosecutors or by their investigators that there are any such grounds to
24 believe that Admiral Jokic will not appear for trial, nor is it suggested
25 that he will pose any danger to any victim, witness, or other person.
Page 57
1 Your Honours, I do wish to submit that in those circumstances,
2 particularly since the deletion of the words "in exceptional
3 circumstances" in December of 1999, I do respectfully submit that he is
4 entitled, bearing in mind the presumption of innocence, as of right, to
5 bail, to provisional release, in those circumstances, conditioned, of
6 course, by the elementary and, I hope, uncontroversial guarantees which he
7 has signed and indeed are accepted by the government of the Republic of
8 Serbia.
9 Now, Your Honours, having said that, the terms of provisional
10 release have, of course, subject to the views of the Tribunal, been the
11 subject of agreement between Prosecution and Defence in the terms in which
12 they're proposed in the motion at Annex A and B. And in particular,
13 Admiral Jokic will not leave the territory of Serbia and will reside at
14 the addresses which have been disclosed to the Tribunal. He freely gives
15 his consent to the Ministry of the Interior to make checks to ensure that
16 he remains at his home; he will report every day to the said ministry;
17 will not communicate with his co-accused; he won't discuss the case with
18 anyone, including the media, except his lawyers; and that he'll return to
19 the Tribunal at the times requested by the Tribunal. So it may be (H) has
20 been somewhat overtaken by events. The defendant will return to the
21 Netherlands to be interviewed, when requested, on reasonable notice by
22 representatives of the Prosecution, and he'll comply with any altered or
23 amended conditions of provisional release.
24 Now, Your Honours, there have been difficulties since November in
25 arranging for interviews. It has been Admiral Jokic's position, from the
Page 58
1 time he arrived, that he wishes to put forward his side of events to the
2 Prosecutor, but it hasn't been possible or practicable, for reasons I hope
3 it will be unnecessary to go into, to arrange for those four days to be
4 done. But Your Honour, without in any way prejudicing my submission that
5 he is entitled, as of right, to provisional release, I should tell the
6 Court, for the purposes of orderly case management, that he appreciates
7 that it's in everybody's interests that he gives his side of events to the
8 Prosecutor early rather than late, and I can tell the Tribunal that if
9 he's given provisional release - or even if he isn't given provisional
10 release - there is no reason that we can see why he should not be
11 interviewed by the Prosecutor's investigators within the period of the
12 next three weeks.
13 Now, if I develop myself further, I'm afraid I shall be repeating
14 myself, but those are the terms on which I respectfully ask the Court to
15 grant provisional release.
16 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much. I believe that Judge Orie will
17 have some questions to address to you on these particular issues since he
18 is the Presiding Judge -- I'm sorry, the Pre-Trial Judge on this case.
19 MR. JONES: Certainly, Your Honour.
20 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I have a few
21 questions to you. Let me limit myself to three questions. You indicated
22 that Rule 65(B), as of right, should guide the Chamber in granting bail,
23 as you call it.
24 MR. JONES: Yes.
25 JUDGE ORIE: Rule 65(B) doesn't read that the release shall be
Page 59
1 ordered by a Trial Chamber after hearing the host country, if it is
2 satisfied, et cetera. It says the release may be ordered by a Trial
3 Chamber only after hearing the host country and only if it is satisfied.
4 MR. JONES: Yes.
5 JUDGE ORIE: So I'd like, especially when I look at the case law
6 of this Tribunal, the words that "as of right" an accused is entitled to
7 bail, if the two requirements are satisfied, might be quicker spoken and
8 explained. That's my first question to you.
9 Second question is: It seems to me if we look at what kind of
10 conditions have been put in the context of provisional release, that you
11 picked out a few, and as far as I understand, you agree on these
12 conditions.
13 MR. JONES: Oh, yes.
14 JUDGE ORIE: But I could imagine that, without giving any idea,
15 without giving any position as what the decision of this Chamber will be,
16 of course, that there might be some other ones as well, and I'd like you
17 to consider whether, for example, a decision that there would be no
18 contact with any co-accused, I don't think that that's one of the --
19 MR. JONES: I think it is at one, at Annex A, letter D.
20 JUDGE ORIE: Let me just check. Yes, yes, of course. Well, my
21 question is: Is this the single or the plural?
22 MR. JONES: Plural. It is intended to be plural, yes.
23 JUDGE ORIE: Then it's no question any more, so it's valid for all
24 co-accused.
25 MR. JONES: Yes.
Page 60
1 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you. Then one of the conditions that have been
2 imposed by one of the Trial Chambers in this Tribunal is that the accused
3 would not occupy any official position in the relevant country. Would
4 that be an acceptable condition, apart from the general rule that any
5 amendment would be acceptable, but I'd just like to raise this specific
6 condition which has been imposed before.
7 MR. JONES: Yes. Your Honour, I would like to formally speak to
8 Admiral Jokic about this, but if it's acceptable to the Court I could do
9 that immediately now.
10 JUDGE ORIE: Yes, you could ask Mr. Jokic now.
11 MR. JONES: Yes.
12 JUDGE ORIE: My last question would be, in any motion, apart from
13 giving assurances by General Jokic, you also rely on assurances given or
14 to be given by the -- or partly already been given by the government of
15 the Republic of Serbia.
16 MR. JONES: Yes.
17 JUDGE ORIE: The assurances given by the Republic of Serbia, as
18 far as I can read them, is that the government is aware of the obligations
19 undertaken by Admiral Jokic, and it will take all necessary action through
20 its competent authorities to ensure that, and then the whole list comes.
21 MR. JONES: Yes.
22 JUDGE ORIE: One of the assurances is that he will return to the
23 ICTY at times requested by the ICTY. This would ultimately have to
24 result, if, of course - which I do not expect at this moment but you never
25 know what will happen in the future - but if Admiral Jokic would decide
Page 61
1 not to return voluntarily to the Tribunal, this ultimately would result in
2 an arrest and sending him back, at least if that is a necessary action. I
3 think it would be. The question is whether there are any competent
4 authorities, whether there is any legislation in force, to ultimately
5 arrest Admiral Jokic and to send him back to the Tribunal. What would be
6 the legal basis for that, since I do understand that there is some
7 discussion in the Republic of Serbia on the legal basis of arrests and
8 rendering people to the Tribunal. So I'd like to know what in your view,
9 since you're relying on these assurances of the government as well, what
10 would be the legal basis for this ultimate consequence of their
11 undertakings?
12 MR. JONES: I'm afraid, Your Honour, I just cannot immediately
13 answer that without taking instructions. Your Honour, I wonder if I might
14 perhaps deal with the first of the question that was put.
15 JUDGE ORIE: Yes, if the presiding -- Mr. President, you agree
16 that -- please go ahead.
17 MR. JONES: Yes.
18 JUDGE ORIE: We will turn to this matter later also, I think, with
19 the representatives of the government, but since you're relying on it, I
20 first ask you, and of course at a later stage similar questions might be
21 put to the representative of the government of the Republic of Serbia.
22 MR. JONES: I'm very grateful, Your Honours. If I could deal with
23 the first question, this does, in my submission, pose a very interesting
24 juridical question. The reason I made the submissions that I did about
25 the meaning of Rule 65(B) is that I submit it's very difficult to think of
Page 62
1 any circumstances in which, if the Court were satisfied that the person
2 before it was obviously prepared to come back to the court, and if he was
3 perfectly peaceful and peaceable, it's very difficult in my submission to
4 envisage any circumstances in which the Court would say, "We appreciate
5 that there is a presumption of innocence, we appreciate this man will come
6 back, and he's behaved honourably and come here, but nonetheless, we are
7 going to refuse an application for provisional release." And the reason
8 I've expressed myself as I have is because one is very anxious to cope for
9 all possible considerations that the Prosecution might wish to raise,
10 which is why I expressed it in the way I did in our motion for provisional
11 release, and that the Court may raise, because a person in Admiral Jokic's
12 position, or a person contemplating being in his position, is surely
13 entitled, in my respectful submission, to some certainty that he does have
14 a right, if he's behaved honourably, if he's surrendered himself to the
15 jurisdiction of the court, if he's a person of good character as envisaged
16 by Rule 65, and it is my submission that that construction is consistent
17 with the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly Article 5,
18 which we cite in the motion. And it's because that we are very -- I am
19 very anxious upon his behalf to ensure that provisional release, so far as
20 I can, is granted, that I do wish to rest upon that legal foundation, and
21 as well as the other factual circumstances. And in my respectful
22 submission, the Tribunal might think it appropriate to approach it in that
23 way rather than as a matter of grace towards people who are of good
24 character.
25 Now, it might be in the end, Your Honours, that the decision of
Page 63
1 the Tribunal in this case, or the Chamber in this case, will not depend
2 upon that construction, but if the Tribunal were minded to say -- to
3 consider that provisional release should not be granted upon those
4 conditions, then, in my respectful submission, it would be right for the
5 Tribunal to grapple with this question in -- and to articulate in legal
6 terms the basis upon which, now that the words "in exceptional
7 circumstances" have been deleted, the circumstances in which a Tribunal
8 might simply, of its own discretion, refuse, even where none of those
9 conditions applied. That's the way I put it, and I hope I'm not putting
10 it in a way which in any way appears to the Tribunal as offensive. But
11 when a person in his position comes voluntarily towards this Tribunal,
12 there are no considerations of that sort, I do argue that the Tribunal
13 ought to say, "We respect that. Yes. You are entitled. We accept that
14 you will come back and you are entitled to provisional release."
15 Now, Your Honour, that is the way I put it on the matter, and if I
16 rightly sense that Mr. Batic, as the Minister of Justice, is in a position
17 to deal with the third of your questions, then, in my respectful
18 submission, since it's a matter of Serbian law, it might be more
19 appropriate for the Tribunal to hear on that matter from him.
20 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Perhaps -- I think the order was that -
21 MR. JONES: Yes.
22 JUDGE ORIE: - but, Mr. President, you'll take over - the
23 Prosecution would then have an opportunity now to -- well, not to respond,
24 but to explain their position and perhaps keep in mind already some of the
25 questions that I put to the Defence, and then of course we'll then
Page 64
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and
13 English transcripts.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 65
1 continue with the representatives of the government.
2 MS. SOMERS: Thank you very much, Your Honours.
3 The Prosecution does not view Rule 65 as seeing the actual release
4 as a matter of right, but the application, the ability to apply, is a
5 right guaranteed. Again, I concur -- the Prosecution totally concurs with
6 Your Honour's reading of the "may," the permissive language, and this is
7 just on purely the legal point. It is not necessarily going to today's
8 hearing, because there are factors. We have stated our position in
9 writing. But on the actual legal question, we wholeheartedly concur that
10 it is not a matter of right to receive it. It has to be assessed, and it
11 is a matter within the sound discretion of the Chamber to rule upon.
12 Having said that, in this particular instance, the presence of the
13 distinguished representatives across from me to offer the assurances which
14 are required should, hopefully, make -- or provide to the Chamber the
15 necessary assurance about appearance and about the activities when in a
16 jurisdiction outside the physical reach of this Tribunal. Again, the
17 distinction between this Tribunal and a domestic jurisdiction is our
18 ability, physically, to enforce anything outside our own very limited
19 physical territory. Again, having said that, the representations that I
20 anticipate will be made and have been initially discussed should satisfy
21 this Chamber.
22 I regret that Ms. Del Ponte herself was unable to appear. She
23 would have liked to. But the one issue which we have discussed - and I am
24 very grateful to my learned counsel opposite for raising - is the
25 willingness and the ability to submit to an interview, and it is the
Page 66
1 Prosecution's position that its non-opposition, simply its non-opposition,
2 viewed that as a very important point, very critical to our actually
3 putting in writing our position, and it is good to hear that this matter
4 should be taken care of within three or so weeks. We have had the
5 opportunity to meet with Mr. Jones just before this hearing. We discussed
6 some of these matters, which is helpful. And we will do everything within
7 our power to facilitate the orderly execution of this particular process,
8 which is, of course, very important to our position.
9 Beyond that, Your Honours, we have stated everything. I think
10 that there is nothing further I can add. It is regrettable that we were
11 unable to accomplish it before leaving, for judicial economy, and I
12 believe as was contemplated by the Prosecution. That opportunity is
13 behind us, unfortunately, and now we look forward to taking care of it as
14 expeditiously as possible.
15 If I may be of any further assistance to any inquiries on the
16 essential grounds for release, please may I ask you to inquire of me.
17 Thank you very much.
18 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then I'd like to address the representative of
19 the government of the Republic of Serbia. Mr. Batic, I was informed that
20 you're accompanied by a representative of the government of the Federation
21 of Yugoslavia. Is my understanding right that as far as fulfilling
22 whatever conditions is concerned, that it's the Republic of Serbia who is
23 making the undertakings?
24 MR. BATIC: [No interpretation]
25 JUDGE ORIE: Please be seated. Of course, you're entirely free to
Page 67
1 stand up if you want to, but ... I have a few -- one of the questions I
2 raised in respect of fulfilling the conditions was whether the legal
3 framework was there in order to effectively make assurances at this
4 moment. Perhaps you could first inform the Chamber about that question.
5 MR. BATIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honours. The
6 government of the Republic of Serbia has reached a decision on the 15th of
7 November last year to provide guarantees for the provisional release of
8 Admiral Jokic. As Minister of Justice in the government of the Republic
9 of Serbia, I wished to confirm these guarantees here in person, which have
10 been presented in Annex B in written form.
11 In response to your question, I would like to inform you that the
12 government of the Republic of Serbia, on the 28th of June, 2001, reached a
13 decision about the automatic application of the Statute of The Hague
14 Tribunal. This decision was published in the Official Gazette of the
15 Republic of Serbia, and on the basis of that decision, in the case of
16 Slobodan Milosevic, he was extradited, and also the brothers Banovic were
17 extradited as well under that decision.
18 So this is the legal basis upon which the government of the
19 Republic of Serbia is cooperating with The Hague Tribunal, which, in the
20 specific reply to your question, means that the government of the Republic
21 of Serbia is obliged, in case the request by Admiral Jokic is
22 refused -- in case Admiral Jokic refuses to comply with the summons of the
23 International Tribunal. So the government of Serbia is then, in that
24 case, obliged to arrest him and transfer Admiral Jokic to the
25 International Tribunal. This would be much easier, because Admiral Jokic
Page 68
1 will have absolute and permanent 24-hour monitoring by the Ministry of
2 Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, both as a guarantee of his own
3 security and in order to comply with all the obligations contained in the
4 written guarantees of the Republic of Serbia, the government of the
5 Republic of Serbia.
6 If you permit me, I would like to say something else. In the
7 identical way, the government of the Republic of Serbia provided
8 guarantees in the case of Mrs. Biljana Plavsic. Of course, I do not wish
9 to make any parallels between these two cases, but I do wish to say that
10 the government of the Republic of Serbia, by providing guarantees, places
11 its international legal credibility, as well as its dignity in general, at
12 a risk, and it would like very much to keep and to preserve this
13 international credibility which has been quite hard to earn. So we have
14 provided guarantees only in two cases so far: for Biljana Plavsic, which
15 guarantees the Trial Chamber accepted. She is currently in Belgrade and
16 is complying with all the conditions contained in the guarantee, which
17 means that the case of Admiral Jokic would not be an isolated precedent.
18 Having in mind the fact that we have also taken into consideration
19 his moral character as well as his own personal guarantees, I would also
20 like to respond to your third question, if you permit me, which you
21 directed to the Defence counsel, Mr. Jones. Admiral Jokic is not able to
22 perform any official duties because he's retired. He's in retirement, and
23 under the laws of the Republic of Serbia, since he happens to be a retired
24 person, cannot perform any other professional or official duties.
25 I am prepared also to answer to any other questions that you may
Page 69
1 have.
2 JUDGE ORIE: I see that in the conditions that have been proposed
3 by the Defence and agreed upon by the Prosecution that I don't think that
4 there's any obligation to regularly report to the Tribunal about the
5 fulfilment of the conditions, at least if I -- I see that you'll do
6 everything -- that Admiral Jokic would be under an obligation to report to
7 the authorities, but unlike in some other cases, where the Chamber has
8 requested the government to report to the Tribunal on a regular basis.
9 That's what is missing, at least in the proposed conditions, and I
10 wondered whether the government would be prepared to report on a regular
11 basis.
12 MR. BATIC: [Interpretation] Absolutely, Your Honour. We have done
13 this in the case of Mrs. Plavsic, and this is something which is carried
14 out by the Ministry of Justice. I have signed the guarantees for Admiral
15 Jokic on behalf of the government, so I would like to state that in the
16 intervals that the Tribunal requests, we will regularly keep the Tribunal
17 informed about the status of Admiral Jokic. So these guarantees
18 absolutely stand, because I, as Minister of Justice, feel that it is my
19 duty to keep the Tribunal informed and to abide by all the agreements.
20 JUDGE ORIE: For me it was just a matter of clarification, because
21 it's not explicit in the conditions. But I do understand. And by your
22 answer, I do understand that one of the other conditions that is regularly
23 put in these kinds of situations is to provide personal security and
24 safety. You told this already, that this is also part of your undertaking
25 as you perceive it.
Page 70
1 Perhaps one final question: You say that it's a matter of the
2 government to decide to cooperate with the Tribunal. You told us that the
3 automatic application of the Statute was prevailing above any national
4 legislation.
5 MR. BATIC: [Interpretation] Yes. That is the government's
6 decision.
7 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Of course, you will be aware -- and I'm not
8 putting any question to you on it, but I'll give you an opportunity if you
9 want to express yourself on that issue.
10 We have seen over the last period of time both that people were
11 detained and were transferred to the Tribunal. We also have seen that
12 some people accused by the Prosecution were not detained and were not
13 transferred to the Tribunal. You'll understand that this might raise some
14 questions in the Tribunal as well. I'm not putting a specific answer to
15 you; I'm just telling you that it's my observation that this happens, and
16 if you find there's any reason to express yourself, then of course the
17 opportunity is there.
18 MR. BATIC: [Interpretation] This has nothing to do directly with
19 the questions that we are discussing, but I think that you are familiar
20 with the circumstances prevailing in the Yugoslav Federation regarding
21 cooperation with The Hague Tribunal and also are familiar with the degree
22 of political controversy.
23 I am speaking on behalf of the government of the Republic of
24 Serbia, which has reached a decision, because unfortunately, at the
25 federal level, the law on cooperation with the Tribunal has not as yet
Page 71
1 been adopted, so the Republic of Serbia, based on its constitution,
2 decided to automatically apply the Statute of the Hague Tribunal. Perhaps
3 the Tribunal is not satisfied with the pace of the transfers, but I can
4 claim responsibly that the government of the Republic of Serbia wishes to
5 be cooperative and wishes for intensive cooperation with The Hague
6 Tribunal, but at the same time, I would like to say that this cooperation
7 should sometimes go both ways.
8 This example, and also the proceedings against Admiral Jokic, can
9 confirm this two-way cooperation in the best possible way, because we
10 believe that people who surrender voluntarily, who provide guarantees on
11 their own, and who the government trusts so that the government provides
12 guarantees on their behalf, should have certain benefits in proceedings
13 before this Honourable Tribunal.
14 There is an analogy here relating to national legal systems. I
15 think that this would also be a positive factor regarding the factor of
16 public opinion in Serbia, which would contribute to an intensification of
17 cooperation, as well as to the motivation of some people to also surrender
18 voluntarily to The Hague Tribunal.
19 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you very much for -- that you have taken the
20 opportunity to make some observation on this issue.
21 MR. BATIC: [Interpretation] Thank you.
22 JUDGE LIU: May I ask you a question, Mr. Batic? Can I ask you a
23 question? Well, first of all, I would like to say that we are extremely
24 grateful for your appearance before this Tribunal on this very short
25 notice, and appreciate very much your willingness to come here, to
Page 72
1 cooperate with this Tribunal. My question is that I wonder whether you
2 could shed some light on the relationship between the federal government
3 and the Republic of Serbia. Could the federal government interfere into
4 the guarantees which will be made by your government concerning the
5 accused's provisional release?
6 MR. BATIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, Mr. President, the answer
7 is no. On the territory of the Republic of Serbia, it is the government
8 of the Republic of Serbia that has exclusive jurisdiction - namely the
9 Ministry of the Interior, the powers of the Ministry of Justice - in terms
10 of all the powers that are involved in this specific case, namely in the
11 case of the accused, Admiral Jokic. I'm trying to say that the federal
12 government and the federal state have some other authorities, some other
13 powers, but as far as this particular authority is concerned, for
14 providing these guarantees, this is only enjoyed by the Republic of Serbia
15 and its government, and that is why I am present here today.
16 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much.
17 [Trial Chamber confers]
18 JUDGE LIU: Well, Mr. Jokic, do you have anything to say on this
19 very issue?
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Your Honours, yes, I do have
21 something to say. The events due to which I have been indicted occurred
22 11 years ago. The Office of the Prosecutor had several years to
23 investigate all the allegations made in witness statements, everything
24 that is contained in documents, et cetera. The possibilities of the
25 Defence are truly modest in this situation, when I am detained and when I
Page 73
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and
13 English transcripts.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 74
1 was not in a position, until now, to set up my own Defence team. I think,
2 if I may put it this way as I address you, that for the sake of justice
3 and fairness, I should also be given the possibility to prepare my defence
4 in better circumstances than the current ones. Right now, I'm really not
5 in a position to do so.
6 At the time of the indictment, I did not know that this would
7 actually take place. The indictment was sealed and I really had no
8 possibility then - I have been a retired person for the past ten years
9 now - to prepare myself. Therefore, my request is the following: I
10 voluntarily surrendered to the Tribunal, and as far as I am concerned, I
11 believe there is no reason why I should not be allowed to prepare my
12 defence, namely to be provisionally released.
13 When the Honourable Court deems it necessary to call me, I shall
14 certainly come and report here.
15 If you have any other questions to address to me, I stand ready to
16 answer them. Thank you.
17 JUDGE LIU: Well, you may sit down, please.
18 [Trial Chamber confers]
19 JUDGE LIU: Well, we have heard the submissions from both
20 parties. We also heard the views expressed by the representative of the
21 government of Serbia. We will take notice of the views expressed by the
22 accused himself, and this Trial Chamber will make its decision concerning
23 this matter at a later stage.
24 I believe that is all on our agenda, so we will rise.
25 --- Whereupon the Provisional Release Hearing
Page 75
1 adjourned at 5.18 p.m.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25