Date: 5.5.2010
Time: 12:00
Registry and Chambers:
Christian Chartier, Acting Spokesperson for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:
Good afternoon,
Trial Chamber II will pronounce its judgement in the Popović et al. case on Thursday, 10 June 2010 at 10:00 in Courtroom III. This judgement will bring to an end the largest trial ever held at the Tribunal, involving seven accused. The seven co-accused in this case, all former military and police officers of Republika Srpska, are charged with genocide (with the exception of Milan Gvero and Radivoje Miletić) and crimes against humanity committed in Srebrenica and Žepa in July 1995. The trial started on 14 July 2006 and closed on 15 September 2009. The trial took a total of 425 days during which more than 5400 exhibits were tendered into evidence and 315 witnesses were called: 182 by the Prosecution; 132 by all the Defence teams and one by the Trial Chamber. All final briefs were filed confidentially except for that of Ljubomir Borovčanin which can be accessed on the court records database.
A further initial appearance of Vojislav Šešelj in his second contempt of court case has been scheduled for tomorrow at 14:30 in Courtroom I. During this hearing, Šešelj will be asked to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, which he declined to do at his initial appearance last week. According to the Rules of Procedure and Evidence an Accused charged with contempt shall be called upon to enter a plea within 10 days of the initial appearance.
Proceedings in the trial of Momčilo Perišić have been adjourned until Tuesday, 1 June.
Hearings in the trial of Vlastimir Ðorđević will resume on Monday, 17 May at 9:00 in Courtroom II when one of the last remaining three witnesses to be heard will be available.
Hearings in the trial of Vojislav Šešelj, Radovan Karadžić, Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović as well as Mićo Stanišić and Stojan Župljanin continue this week and next as scheduled.
Office of the Prosecutor:
Olga Kavran, Spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor, made the following statement:
Next week, on Wednesday and Thursday, Prosecutor Serge Brammertz will be in Belgrade, Serbia. This will be the second of his planned working visits to the region of the former Yugoslavia in preparation for the OTP's biannual report to the UN Security Council. The Prosecutor plans to travel to Zagreb, Croatia towards the end of May and will address the Security Council in the second half of June.
In Belgrade, Prosecutor Brammertz will meet with Prosecutor Vukcevic and other members of Serbia's Action Team. The Prosecutor will also meet President Tadic, PM Cvetkovic and Minister Ljajic. The main topic of all meetings will be the cooperation of Serbia with the Office of the Prosecutor and other matters related to the Tribunal’s Completion Strategy.
Yesterday, the Prosecutor was in Brussels where he met with the Western Balkans Working Group of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. The Prosecutor also had a working meeting with Mr. Stefan Füle, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement. The topics of the meetings were the work of the Office of the prosecutor - the ongoing trial and appeals, the Tribunal's completion strategy and the cooperation of States.
Christian Chartier added that the date set for the Tribunal’s biannual report to the UN Security Council, presented by both the President and the Prosecutor, is 18 June 2010.
Questions:
No questions were asked.