BEFORE THE APPEALS CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen, Presiding
Judge Lal Chand Vohrah
Judge Rafael Nieto-Navia
Judge Patricia Wald
Judge Fausto Pocar

Registrar:
Mrs. Dorothee de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh

Decision of:
19 July 2000

PROSECUTOR

v.

GORAN JELISIC

___________________________________________________________

DECISION ON URGENT MOTION REQUESTING
EXTENSION OF TIME

___________________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Upawansa Yapa

Counsel for Goran Jelisic:

Mr. Veselin Londrovic
Mr. Michael Greaves

 

THE Appeals 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 ("the Appeals Chamber"),

BEING SEISED OF an "Urgent Motion to Extend Time for Filing of Appeal Brief", filed by the Appellant on 7 July 2000, in which the Appellant seeks an order under Rule 127(B) allowing an extension of time for the filing of his Appeal Brief by 28 days from 10 July 2000;

NOTING Trial Chamber I’s oral Judgement pronounced on 19 October 1999;

NOTING the "Prosecution’s Notice of Appeal", filed on 21 October 1999;

NOTING the "Notice of Cross-Appeal", filed by Counsel for Goran Jelisic ("the Defence") on 26 October 1999;

NOTING Trial Chamber I’s written Judgement issued on 14 December 1999;

NOTING the "Notice of Appeal", filed by the Defence on 15 December 1999, "against the sentence and Judgement pronounced on the 14th day of December 1999";

NOTING the Appeals Chamber’s "Scheduling Order" of 7 March 2000, in which the Chamber orders that the Appellants’ Briefs under Rule 111 shall be filed no later than 15 May 2000;

NOTING the Appeals Chamber’s subsequent "Order for Extension of Time" of 11 May 2000, in which the Chamber orders that the Appellants’ Briefs under Rule 111 shall be filed no later than 10 July 2000;

NOTING the Appeals Chamber’s "Order for Provisional Extension of Time and Response by the Prosecutor", filed on 10 July 2000;

NOTING the "Prosecution Response to the Defence’s Urgent Motion to Extend Time for Filing of Appeal Brief", filed on 13 July 2000, in which the Prosecutor opposes the Defence request for an extension of time;

NOTING the "Prosecution’s Appeal Brief (Public Redacted Version)", filed on 14 July 2000;

NOTING the Appeals Chamber’s "Order for Provisional Extension of Time", filed on 17 July 2000;

NOTING that, pursuant to Rule 127(B), the Appeals Chamber may enlarge any time prescribed by or under the Rules, on good cause being shown by motion;

CONSIDERING that the Urgent Motion advances two grounds which, it is submitted, constitute good cause for granting an extension of time pursuant to Rule 127(B):

    1. the present unavailability of an expert report necessary for the proper formulation of one ground of appeal, and

    2. the need for more time for a recently appointed legal assistant to identify passages from the videotapes of trial proceedings to be annexed to the Appellant’s Brief;

CONSIDERING that ground one concerns an issue "lately identified" and that the Urgent Motion discloses no satisfactory reason why the alleged issue could not have been earlier identified;

FINDING ACCORDINGLY that the first ground is not made out;

FINDING with respect to the second ground that, in the circumstances of this particular case, there is good cause for granting an extension of time;

HEREBY ORDERS that briefs shall be filed according to the following revised schedule:

    1. The Defence’s Appellant’s Brief shall be filed by 7 August 2000;

    2. The Defence’s Respondent’s Brief shall be filed by 14 August 2000;

    3. The Prosecutor’s Brief in Reply may be filed by 29 August 2000;

    4. The Prosecutor’s Respondent’s Brief shall be filed by 6 September 2000;

    5. The Defence’s Brief in Reply may be filed by 21 September 2000.

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

________________________________
Mohamed Shahabuddeen
Presiding

Dated this nineteenth day of July 2000
At The Hague,
The Netherlands.

[Seal of the Tribunal]