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1 Tuesday, 14 November 2000
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The appellant entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 10.00 a.m.
6 JUDGE POCAR: This Status Conference is called to order.
7 Madam Registrar, will you please call the case.
8 THE REGISTRAR: The Prosecutor versus Goran Jelisic. Case number
9 IT-95-10-A.
10 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.
11 Mr. Jelisic, you are present in court. Are you having any
12 problems?
13 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] No, Your Honour.
14 JUDGE POCAR: Can you hear me? Thank you. You may sit down.
15 Who is appearing for the Prosecution?
16 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
17 MR. YAPA: May it please Your Honour. I'm Upawansa Yapa appearing
18 for the Prosecution with Mr. Fabricio Guariglia.
19 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.
20 Who is appearing for Mr. Jelisic?
21 MR. BABIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, the Defence is
22 represented by my learned colleague Michael Greaves and I, Jovan Babic,
23 attorney at law from Yugoslavia.
24 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for His Honour, please.
25 JUDGE POCAR: I refer to the Scheduling Order, which has been made
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1 on the 6th of November, 2000, which indicated today as the day for this
2 Status Conference before me, as one of the Judges of the Appeals Chamber
3 in this case.
4 May I remind you that the last Status Conference took place on the
5 17th of July, 2000, and according to the Rules, a Status Conference has to
6 be held within 120 days from then; with the purpose, under Rule 65 bis, to
7 allow persons in custody pending appeal the opportunity to raise any issue
8 in relation to their custody, including the conditions of the person, and
9 to update the appellant with respect to the status of this case.
10 I would like first to ask if there are any concerns as to the
11 detention conditions of the appellant. May I ask the Defence if there are
12 any problems with that first.
13 MR. BABIC: [Interpretation] In terms of what I know as Defence
14 counsel, the detention conditions for Mr. Jelisic are more or less the
15 same, without any significant changes; one could say satisfactory,
16 conditionally speaking.
17 The only outstanding issue is the health condition of Goran
18 Jelisic which is unpredictable due to certain organic problems that he
19 has, and sometimes doctors have to take emergency action. However, I
20 think that today the condition of his health is satisfactory, and I
21 believe that Goran Jelisic is in a position to follow the proceedings here
22 today.
23 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. So there are no specific problems to
24 raise today on this issue? The health conditions are taken care of
25 regularly, according to you.
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1 MR. BABIC: [Interpretation] According to the information that I
2 have been receiving, when sometimes there are some unforeseen
3 circumstances with regard to Goran Jelisic's condition, the appropriate
4 services in the Detention Unit in Scheveningen always make every effort to
5 take care of such matters.
6 However, there was one problem that did crop up. The kidney
7 ailment that Goran Jelisic has will perhaps require more radical
8 measures. However, that is up to the doctors. So we shall follow the
9 situation and perhaps an appropriate decision will be required in this
10 regard.
11 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.
12 MR. BABIC: [Interpretation] May I just point out that the
13 condition of his health also affects his mental health in such
14 situations. Then Goran Jelisic becomes depressive. So then in addition
15 to receiving treatment for his organic ailment, he has to receive
16 treatment in terms of his mental health.
17 That is what I could say at this point.
18 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you. Well, you know that -- I understand
19 you have no complaint to raise for the time being. In any case, as you
20 know, there is, in case -- I hope it won't be the case, but in case you
21 have any complaint to raise, there is a specific procedure that has to be
22 followed if that will be necessary in the future, but I hope that the
23 situation will go on regularly and that any problem that may arise will be
24 taken care of.
25 If there is nothing more to say on that, I would move on to
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1 consider the status of the case now, the status of the appeal.
2 As the parties know, the briefs have been filed by both the
3 appellant and the Prosecution, and responses to briefs and replies have
4 also been filed.
5 At a certain moment in September - I don't remember exactly the
6 date now but it was in September - the Appeals Chamber issued a decision
7 on the motion requesting an extension of time for the filing of the
8 appellant reply to the Prosecution. That extension has been granted and
9 the reply has been filed on the 6th of October, on time. So this process
10 of exchange of files has come to an end.
11 However, there is still an outstanding motion that was filed on
12 the 8th of September by the appellant, applying for the presentation of
13 additional evidence in the form of a report of an expert witness and a
14 report of the supervisor of the UN Detention Unit.
15 The Prosecution has responded to that on the 18th of September,
16 and the decision of the Appeals Chamber is currently still pending. What
17 I can say is that that decision will come out shortly in these days. It
18 is a question of days; maybe tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, but it is a
19 question of days, a short time.
20 Once that decision is issued, the Appeals Chamber will, with the
21 decision itself, maybe or separately, adopt a Scheduling Order for the
22 continuation of the appeal, with a view to concluding the procedure quite
23 early. I can't give any date now, of course, because that has to be
24 decided by the Appeals Chamber together. I can't decide myself on the
25 dates, but certainly the idea is to speed up the appeal as far as
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1 possible. So this is the status of the appeal as I see it now.
2 I would ask the Prosecution if there are any problems on the
3 appeal.
4 MR. YAPA: I thank you, Your Honour. We have no problems, and we
5 have no matters to raise at this stage.
6 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. Are there any matters to be raised that
7 the appellant wants to raise? The Defence?
8 MR. BABIC: [Interpretation] The Defence has no problems that it
9 wishes to raise now. The Defence believes that it has already done in its
10 submission so far, either in terms of our own submissions or responses to
11 Prosecutor's briefs.
12 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. Then the --
13 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
14 JUDGE POCAR: Sorry. Thank you. Then if there are no matters
15 that the parties want to raise as to the appeal, we remain with what I
16 said before, that is, that the decision on the outstanding motion will
17 come out shortly, and the Appeals Chamber will make a Scheduling Order for
18 the continuation of the appeal.
19 Are there, at this stage, any other matters that the parties want
20 to raise? Prosecution?
21 MR. YAPA: We don't have any matters.
22 JUDGE POCAR: Defence?
23 MR. BABIC: [Interpretation] No, Your Honour.
24 JUDGE POCAR: Well, then we can adjourn our proceedings. The
25 Status Conference then is adjourned.
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1 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned
2 at 10.15 a.m.
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