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 Is oral Judgement pronounced on 19 October 1999;
NOTING the "Prosecutions 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 Is 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 Chambers "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 Chambers 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 Chambers "Order for Provisional Extension of Time and Response by the Prosecutor", filed on 10 July 2000;
NOTING the "Prosecution Response to the Defences 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 "Prosecutions Appeal Brief (Public Redacted Version)", filed on 14 July 2000;
NOTING the Appeals Chambers "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):
the present unavailability of an expert report necessary for the proper formulation of one ground of appeal, and
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 Appellants 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:
The Defences Appellants Brief shall be filed by 7 August 2000;
The Defences Respondents Brief shall be filed by 14 August 2000;
The Prosecutors Brief in Reply may be filed by 29 August 2000;
The Prosecutors Respondents Brief shall be filed by 6 September 2000;
The Defences 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]