Page 76
1 Friday, 28th August, 1998
2 (Open session)
3 (The accused entered court)
4 --- Upon commencing at 3.05 p.m.
5 JUDGE MUMBA: Good afternoon. May the
6 registrar please call the case?
7 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour.
8 Case number IT-96-23-PT, the Prosecutor versus Kunarac.
9 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. May I have the
10 appearances for the Prosecution, please?
11 MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: The Prosecution is
12 represented by senior trial attorney Franck Terrier,
13 and my name is Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff.
14 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. The Defence,
15 please?
16 MR. PRODANOVIC: Good afternoon, Your
17 Honour. I am attorney Slavisa Prodanovic from Bosnia.
18 I apologise for being a bit late, but I did not receive
19 proper information in which courtroom the hearing today
20 was going to take place.
21 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Yes. It's quite
22 confusing because we now have three courtrooms, and
23 they are in different places in this building. So it's
24 all right. We can start.
25 These proceedings are for a further plea by
Page 77
1 the accused, since the indictment was amended. I hope
2 that the Defence counsel has had sufficient time to
3 discuss the amended indictment with the accused.
4 Have you had enough time to discuss it with
5 the accused?
6 MR. PRODANOVIC: You could say so, even
7 though my client only received the translation in his
8 own language yesterday afternoon. I only received
9 information about the Status Conference two days ago
10 myself, so I barely managed to come here. So, in the
11 future, I would like to request that I be given more
12 notice.
13 I had to go through Germany. There was no
14 regular line from Belgrade to Amsterdam. So I was able
15 to talk to my client, but only yesterday, and it was at
16 that time that he received a copy of the indictment.
17 In any event, he understood what the changes
18 are in the amended indictment. Thank you.
19 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you very much.
20 Mr. Kunarac, would you please stand up? Can you
21 understand the proceedings? Can you hear in a language
22 you understand?
23 THE ACCUSED: Yes. I can hear you and I
24 understand it. I received a copy last night, and I
25 understand what it contains.
Page 78
1 JUDGE MUMBA: Your counsel has explained, of
2 course, that there are some delay in having the amended
3 indictment issued to you and also to your counsel. I
4 wanted to find out, since you received the indictment,
5 have you gone through the indictment? Have you
6 discussed it with your counsel?
7 THE ACCUSED: Yes. I read through it and I
8 had an opportunity to discuss it with my attorney for
9 about one hour.
10 JUDGE MUMBA: In that case, then are you
11 ready to take the plea? There are 21 counts. Are you
12 ready to plead?
13 THE ACCUSED: Yes.
14 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Can you confirm,
15 Mr. Prodanovic, that your client is ready to plead?
16 MR. PRODANOVIC: Yes.
17 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. I would like to
18 find out too from Defence counsel, is it necessary to
19 read the whole indictment or can we just go to the
20 charges?
21 MR. PRODANOVIC: I think that it is not
22 necessary to read the entire indictment. I believe
23 that he should just plead to individual charges. In
24 other words, I don't think that we need to have
25 everything read out, that is, all the actions that he
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1 is charged with, just the types of charges. I hope
2 that I have made myself clear.
3 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you very much.
4 Mr. Kunarac, I'll read out the counts in the amended
5 indictment to you, and for each count, you should enter
6 a plea of not guilty or guilty, and you should use
7 those exact words.
8 I want to explain a little. This indictment
9 we are reading out today is an amended indictment. The
10 Court is aware that you did make pleas to the previous
11 indictment, but we are going to begin afresh, because
12 the amendment touches almost every count. So we shall
13 start right from Count 1.
14 On Count 1, Mr. Kunarac, you stand charged
15 with a crime against humanity, punishable under Article
16 5(f) (torture) of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do
17 you plead, guilty or not guilty?
18 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
19 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 2, a crime
20 against humanity, punishable under Article 5(g) (rape)
21 of the Statute. How do you plead?
22 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
23 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 3, a
24 violation of the laws or customs of war, punishable
25 under Article 3 of the Statute of the Tribunal and
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1 recognised by Common Article 3(1)(a) (torture) of the
2 Geneva Conventions. How do you plead?
3 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
4 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 4, a violation of the
5 laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of
6 the Statute and recognised by Additional Protocol II,
7 Article 4 (rape) of the Geneva Conventions. How do you
8 plead?
9 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
10 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 5, a crime
11 against humanity, punishable under Article 5(f)
12 (torture) of the Statute. How do you plead?
13 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
14 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 6, a crime
15 against humanity, punishable under Article 5(g) (rape)
16 of the Statute. How do you plead?
17 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
18 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 7, a violation of the
19 laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of
20 the Statute and recognised by Common Article 3(1)(a)
21 (torture) of the Geneva Conventions. How do you
22 plead?
23 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
24 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 8, a violation of the
25 laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of
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1 the Statute and recognised by Additional Protocol II,
2 Article 4 (rape) of the Geneva Conventions. How do you
3 plead?
4 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
5 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 9, a crime
6 against humanity, punishable under Article 5(g) (rape)
7 of the Statute. How do you plead?
8 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
9 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 10, a violation of the
10 laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of
11 the Statute and recognised by Additional Protocol II,
12 Article 4 (rape) of the Geneva Conventions. How do you
13 plead?
14 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
15 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 11, a
16 violation of the laws or customs of war, punishable
17 under Article 3 of the Statute and recognised by Common
18 Article 3(1)(a) (torture) of the Geneva Conventions.
19 How do you plead?
20 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
21 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 12, a
22 violation of the laws or customs of war, punishable
23 under Article 3 of the Statute and recognised by
24 Additional Protocol II, Article 4 (rape) of the Geneva
25 Conventions. How do you plead?
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1 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
2 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Count 13, a
3 violation of the laws or customs of war, punishable
4 under Article 3(e) (plunder of private property) of the
5 Statute. How do you plead?
6 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
7 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 14, a crime against
8 humanity, punishable under Article 5(c) (enslavement)
9 of the Statute. How do you plead?
10 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
11 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 15, a crime against
12 humanity, punishable under Article 5(g) (rape) of the
13 Statute. How do you plead?
14 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
15 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 16, a violation of the
16 laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of
17 the Statute and recognised by Additional Protocol II,
18 Article 4 (rape) of the Geneva Conventions. How do you
19 plead to that count?
20 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
21 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 17, a violation of the
22 laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of
23 the Statute and recognised by Common Article 3(1)(c)
24 (outrages upon personal dignity) of the Geneva
25 Conventions. How do you plead?
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1 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
2 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 18, a crime against
3 humanity, punishable under Article 5(c) (enslavement)
4 of the Statute. How do you plead?
5 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
6 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 19, a crime against
7 humanity, punishable under Article 5(g) (rape) of the
8 Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead?
9 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
10 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 20, a violation of the
11 laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of
12 the Statute and recognised by Additional Protocol II,
13 Article 4 (rape) of the Geneva Conventions. How do you
14 plead?
15 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty.
16 JUDGE MUMBA: The last count, Count 21, a
17 violation of the laws or customs of war, punishable
18 under Article 3 of the Statute and recognised by Common
19 Article 3(1)(c) (outrages upon personal dignity) of the
20 Geneva Conventions. How do you plead?
21 THE ACCUSED: Not guilty, Your Honour.
22 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. You have pleaded
23 not guilty on all 21 counts. Will you please be
24 seated?
25 THE ACCUSED: Thank you.
Page 84
1 JUDGE MUMBA: We have come to the end of the
2 first part of our proceedings this afternoon. I wonder
3 whether there is anything else the Prosecution would
4 like to say? Nothing?
5 Defence counsel?
6 MR. PRODANOVIC: No, thank you.
7 JUDGE MUMBA: We shall adjourn and proceed
8 with a Status Conference in closed session right away.
9 Mr. Registrar, please, let's move into closed
10 session.
11 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour. It will
12 take five to ten minutes to get into closed session.
13 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. We will wait.
14 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at
15 3.20 p.m. sine die
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