IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Claude Jorda, Presiding
Judge Fouad Riad
Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen

Registrar:
Mr. Jean-Jacques Heintz, Deputy-Registrar

Decision of:
19 February 1998

THE PROSECUTOR

v.

TIHOMIR BLASKIC

 _______________________________________________________

DECISION ON PROSECUTOR AND DEFENCE MOTIONS
TO PROCEED BY DEPOSITION

_______________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Mark Harmon
Mr. Gregory Kehoe
Mr. Andrew Cayley

Defence Counsel:

Mr. Russell Hayman
Mr. Anto Nobilo

 

THE TRIAL CHAMBER,

PURSUANT to Article 21 of the Statute of the Tribunal and Rules 54, 65bis, 71 and 75 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence;

CONSIDERING the status conference of 18 February 1998;

CONSIDERING the Prosecutor’s confidential application of 18 February 1998;

CONSIDERING the Defence’s request of 18 February 1998;

CONSIDERING the verbal agreement of General Blaskic at the status conference, reproduced in the transcript thereof;

NOTING that Judge Fouad Riad, a Judge of Trial Chamber I which is currently hearing this case, is temporarily unavailable for medical reasons;

NOTING that his unavailability must in no event prejudice the right of the accused to be tried without undue delay, as provided in Article 21(4)(c) of the Statute of the Tribunal;

NOTING that, pursuant to Sub-rule 71(A), at the request of either party, the Trial Chamber may, in exceptional circumstances and in the interests of justice, order that a deposition be taken before a duly appointed Presiding Officer;

NOTING that the form of the depositions provided in Rule 71 is in every point comparable to depositions before the Trial Chamber at trial, and that inter alia the witness is cross-examined during such depositions; that it should be noted that, pursuant to Sub-rule 71(E), the record of those depositions must be transmitted to the full Trial Chamber;

NOTING that the Trial Chamber considers that the unavailability of one of its members constitutes an exceptional circumstance and that it is in the interests of justice that the hearing of witnesses in the trial of General Blaskic not be stayed;

NOTING that the parties have agreed to make use of the deposition procedure stipulated in Rule 71, subject to the condition of the Defence that Judges Claude Jorda and Mohamed Shahabuddeen be appointed Presiding Officers and that the said procedure be used only for four specific witnesses; and, lastly, that the accused has consented to the application of that procedure;

NOTING that the parties have agreed that the witness protective measures which had been taken by the Trial Chamber pursuant to Rule 75 apply to the deposition procedure;

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS,

GRANTS the motions of both parties;

ORDERS therefore that the hearings scheduled for Thursday, 19 February 1998 and Friday, 20 February 1998 give rise to the taking of depositions of the four witnesses concerned pursuant to the terms of Rule 71;

APPOINTS as Presiding Officers for that purpose Judges Claude Jorda and Mohamed Shahabuddeen;

ORDERS that the deposition procedure shall apply as follows:

1. The Presiding Officers and the parties shall not don their robes;

2. The hearing shall be public, subject to all protective measures in force;

3. The record shall be transmitted to the Trial Chamber made up of its three Judges pursuant to Sub-rule 71(E).

Done in French and English, the French text being authoritative.

Done this nineteenth day of February 1998
At The Hague
The Netherlands

(signed)
____________________
Claude Jorda
Presiding Judge, Trial Chamber I

(Seal of the Tribunal)