120116SC

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1 Monday, 16 January 2012

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 9.28 a.m.

6 JUDGE AGIUS: So good morning, everybody, and I wish you all a

7 very happy and prosperous new year.

8 Madam or Mr. Registrar, could you call the case, please.

9 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honour. This is case number

10 IT-05-87/1-A, the Prosecutor versus Vlastimir Djordjevic.

11 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

12 Before we proceed any further, Mr. Djordjevic, I would like to

13 know whether you can follow the proceedings in a language that you can

14 understand? Okay. I saw the appellant Djordjevic nodding. So we can

15 proceed.

16 And I call for appearances, starting with the Prosecution first.

17 MR. WOOD: Good morning, Your Honour.

18 JUDGE AGIUS: Good morning.

19 MR. WOOD: Kyle Wood for the Prosecution, along with

20 Christine Dahl and our case manager, Lourdes Galicia.

21 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

22 And appearances for Appellant Djordjevic.

23 MR. DJORDJEVIC: Good morning, Your Honour.

24 JUDGE AGIUS: Good morning.

25 MR. DJORDJEVIC: I'm Dragoljub Djordjevic, lead counsel for

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1 accused, Vlastimir Djordjevic. And together with me is co-counsel,

2 Veljko Djurdjic; and our legal assistant, Ms. Marie O'Leary.

3 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

4 So this Status Conference, like many others, is called in

5 accordance with Rule 65 bis of our Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

6 Rule 65 in its paragraph (B), 65 bis in its paragraph (B), requires a

7 Status Conference to be convened within 120 days after the filing of a

8 notice of appeal, and thereafter within 120 days following the previous

9 Status Conference.

10 The purpose of such Status Conferences is to allow any person in

11 custody pending appeal the opportunity to raise issues or matters in

12 relation thereto, including the mental and physical condition of that

13 person. Of course, there are other purposes for -- or for a

14 Status Conference, and I will come to those later. In the present case

15 the parties filed the notices of appeal on the 24th of May, 2011. Two

16 Status Conferences have been held since then. The first was held on the

17 30th of May of last year and the last one was held on the

18 21st of September, also of last year. Today's Status Conference, being

19 the third one in this case, was scheduled by an order issued by myself on

20 the 29th of November, 2011.

21 I will start with the first item on today's agenda, and

22 particularly I would like to ask about or inquire about the status of the

23 detention conditions and health situation of appellant, Mr. Djordjevic.

24 Mr. Djordjevic and counsel, if you have any concerns in relation

25 to the conditions of your detention or your state of health,

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1 Mr. Djordjevic, I would invite you to raise them now, either directly or

2 through your counsel; and should it be the case, if you prefer, such a

3 discussion can take place in private session.

4 Mr. Djordjevic, do you wish to make a statement?

5 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Everything is fine, Your Honour.

6 No objections, no concerns.

7 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

8 Before we turn to any matters or issues that the parties may wish

9 to raise, I would like to set out the recent procedural history of this

10 case. This is also one of the purposes of a Status Conference, it being

11 held in a public setting so that the public in general, as well as the

12 parties, are made aware exactly of what has been taking place.

13 On 11th March 2011 the parties were granted an extension of time

14 of 60 days to file their notices of appeal. On the 24th of May, 2011,

15 both the Prosecution and the Djordjevic Defence filed their respective

16 notices of appeal. The Prosecution presented two grounds of appeal,

17 while Appellant Djordjevic presented 19 grounds of appeal.

18 On 27 May of last year, the Djordjevic Defence team filed a

19 motion requesting an extension of time and word limit in respect of its

20 appeal brief. At the Status Conference held on 30th May, 2011, I

21 extended the dead-line for filing appeal briefs to 15th August for both

22 parties. In addition, I granted the Djordjevic Defence an extension of

23 up to 15.000 words for its appeal brief and granted the Prosecution the

24 same extension in respect of its brief in response. Both parties filed

25 their appeal briefs on 15th August, 2011.

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1 At the Status Conference on 21st September, 2011, the

2 Djordjevic Defence requested an extension of time of 15 days for the

3 filing of its brief in reply as well as an extension of the word limit by

4 6.000 words. I granted both parties an extension of time to the

5 26th of October of last year for the filing of their briefs in reply and

6 also granted the Djordjevic Defence an extension of up to 3.000 words.

7 Both parties filed their briefs in response on 26th September, 2011, and

8 subsequently filed their briefs in reply on 26th October, 2011.

9 The Prosecution filed a public redacted version of its appeal

10 brief on 17th August, 2011, and the Djordjevic Defence filed its

11 redacted -- public redacted version on 30th September, 2011. No public

12 redacted versions of the response briefs and reply briefs have yet been

13 filed. In this respect I note that on 24th November, 2011, the

14 Prosecution filed a confidential motion in which it requested the

15 redaction of certain confidential information from Djordjevic's appeal

16 brief. The Djordjevic Defence filed its response to the motion

17 confidentially on 7th December, 2011, and the Prosecution filed a

18 confidential reply on 9th December, 2011. A decision on this motion is

19 pending and will be issued shortly. In the meantime, I understand that

20 the Registry has withdrawn the public redacted version of Djordjevic's

21 appeal brief from the public filings in light of the Prosecution's

22 motion.

23 I expect that that the parties may be waiting for the Chamber's

24 decision before filing redacted versions of their response brief and

25 reply briefs. Once that happens, please try to meet your obligations at

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1 your earliest. I'm not going to impose any time-limits. I am having

2 full trust in your co-operation with the Appeals Chamber.

3 In any event, I would like to remind the parties of their

4 obligations to file public redacted versions in their confidential

5 submissions -- of their confidential submissions. So I encourage both of

6 you to advance your work in preparing public redacted versions of the

7 response and reply briefs so that they may be filed within a reasonable

8 time after the decision is delivered. It shouldn't be a big deal,

9 depending obviously on what we will decide in our decision. You can

10 still prepare the public redacted version, have it ready, and then you

11 will omit from it whatever if it is the case.

12 Having said so, I would like to ask the parties whether they have

13 any matter that they would like to raise with me today. Let's start with

14 the Prosecution.

15 MR. WOOD: Nothing from the Prosecution, Your Honour.

16 JUDGE AGIUS: Okay. Thank you.

17 And, Mr. Djordjevic.

18 MR. DJORDJEVIC: Neither the Defence have no -- any issues to --

19 or some question.

20 JUDGE AGIUS: All right. Thank you.

21 No offence meant to you, Mr. Djordjevic, but it is the practice

22 of the Presiding Judge in the Status Conference to turn towards your

23 client and make sure that he also has no matters that he would like to

24 raise.

25 Mr. Djordjevic, is there any matter that we haven't dealt with

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1 that you would like to raise?

2 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] No, there isn't any. Thank you.

3 JUDGE AGIUS: Okay. Thank you.

4 I think that this concludes our Status Conference today. I thank

5 you all for your attendance and co-operation and now I adjourn these

6 proceedings. Thank you.

7 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at 9.41 a.m.