Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 234

1 Wednesday, 29 December 1999

2 [Initial Appearance]

3 [Open session]

4 [The accused entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 3.11 p.m.

6 JUDGE MUMBA: Good afternoon. Madam

7 Registrar, please call the case.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour.

9 Case number IT-96-23-I, the Prosecutor against Zoran

10 Vukovic.

11 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. May I have

12 appearances for the Prosecution, please.

13 MR. RYNEVELD: Good afternoon, Your Honour.

14 If it please the Court, Dirk Ryneveld, along with Peggy

15 Kuo and also assisting us is Daryl Mundis for the

16 Prosecution. We're prepared to proceed this

17 afternoon.

18 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. For the Defence?

19 MR. KOSTIC: Good afternoon, Your Honour.

20 Attorney Nikola Kostic appearing for Mr. Vukovic. Your

21 Honour, I think you know I've appeared in front of this

22 Tribunal before. Nice to see you again. I should

23 advise you, Your Honour, that my appearance today I

24 think is, I'm not sure how you would qualify it, but

25 probably some kind of a temporary appointment in this

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1 case.

2 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. It's for the purposes of

3 the Initial Appearance only?

4 MR. KOSTIC: Yes, and I have met with the

5 client and advised him. I do speak Serbian, so we were

6 able to communicate. But I'm prepared to assist the

7 client in going through today's appearance.

8 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you very much,

9 Mr. Kostic.

10 The proceedings today are for the Initial

11 Appearance of the accused following his arrest, and we

12 are proceeding as provided for under Articles 20 and 21

13 of the Statute and we shall proceed to the proceedings

14 under Rule 62.

15 I would like to find out from the accused

16 whether he can hear the proceedings in a language he

17 understands.

18 MR. KOSTIC: Yes, he does, Your Honour.

19 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. I wanted the

20 accused to answer. I didn't hear him. Can you hear?

21 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes.

22 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. I wanted to explain

23 to the accused that this is an Initial Appearance, and

24 the procedure is that he may plead to the charges

25 against him if he has had time to read the indictment

Page 236

1 and to understand it and to consult with the counsel

2 who has been assigned to him, or he has a choice to

3 plead later, within 30 days of today's date. So I

4 would like to find out from the accused whether he

5 received the indictment containing the charges against

6 him.

7 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, I

8 have received them.

9 JUDGE MUMBA: You understand the indictment?

10 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes.

11 JUDGE MUMBA: Do you feel that you are ready

12 to proceed to plead today or would you like to plead

13 later, within 30 days?

14 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] I would

15 like to proceed today.

16 JUDGE MUMBA: The next question I have to

17 find out is whether you would like to have the

18 indictment read in full, or would you waive that right

19 to have the indictment read to you?

20 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] I could

21 waive that right and that only what is related to

22 myself should be read out.

23 JUDGE MUMBA: All right. So we shall go

24 straight to the charges which are related to this

25 accused.

Page 237

1 Since you said that you are ready to proceed

2 today, I will ask you to stand up, and since you say

3 that you have understood the indictment and you have

4 waived the right to have the indictment read to you, I

5 will proceed on to the charges which are related to

6 you, and these are:

7 Count 21: Torture, a crime against humanity

8 punishable under Article 5(f) of the Statute of the

9 Tribunal. How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?

10 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

11 guilty.

12 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 22: Rape, a crime

13 against humanity punishable under Article 5(g) of the

14 Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead?

15 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

16 guilty.

17 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 23: Torture, a violation

18 of the laws or customs of war punishable under Article

19 3 of the Statute of the Tribunal and recognised by

20 Common Article 3(1)(a) (torture) of the Geneva

21 Conventions. How do you plead?

22 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

23 guilty.

24 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 24: Rape, a violation of

25 the laws or customs of war punishable under Article 3

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1 of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead?

2 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

3 guilty.

4 JUDGE MUMBA: The other counts related to you

5 are:

6 Count 33: Torture, a crime against humanity

7 punishable under Article 5(f) of the Statute of the

8 Tribunal. How do you plead?

9 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

10 guilty.

11 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 34: Rape, a crime

12 against humanity punishable under Article 5(g) of the

13 Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead?

14 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

15 guilty.

16 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 35: Torture, a violation

17 of the laws or customs of war punishable under Article

18 3 of the Statute of the Tribunal and recognised by

19 Common Article 3(1)(a) (torture) of the Geneva

20 Conventions. How do you plead?

21 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

22 guilty.

23 JUDGE MUMBA: Count 36: Rape, a violation of

24 the laws or customs of war punishable under Article 3

25 of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead?

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1 THE ACCUSED VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Not

2 guilty.

3 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Those are the only

4 counts related to yourself. You may be seated.

5 Mr. Kostic, we have taken the pleas. I just

6 wanted to know in what state of health the accused is.

7 Is everything okay as far as the accused's detention is

8 concerned?

9 MR. KOSTIC: Your Honour, I spent last

10 evening at the U.N. Detention Centre with Mr. Vukovic.

11 He had no particular complaints about his physical

12 condition, and he appeared to be -- I'm not a doctor,

13 but he appeared to be fine. Like I say, there doesn't

14 seem to be a problem concerning his situation.

15 I may want to add for you that the family has

16 taken some efforts to identify some type of a defence

17 team or an office, and I can inform you about that

18 whenever you feel it appropriate.

19 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you very much.

20 The Prosecutor, we have been through the

21 Initial Appearance and the accused has pleaded. I need

22 only to remind the Prosecution of their duties under

23 Rule 66, disclosure, and the rest of the Rules that

24 follow, and that the Defence will also have 30 days

25 after the materials are disclosed for preliminary

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1 motions. I wanted to find out whether there was

2 anything else that the Prosecution would like to say to

3 the Court before we rise.

4 MR. RYNEVELD: Yes, Your Honour. Thank you

5 for the opportunity of raising more or less a

6 housekeeping matter, if I may. I can say that

7 yesterday I filed a request to a judge to allow

8 disclosure of the amended indictment which had

9 previously been under seal.

10 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.

11 MR. RYNEVELD: Inadvertently I also added a

12 phrase which I, on reflection, wish I hadn't included

13 and that was "the supporting documentation or arrest

14 warrants." Because the supporting material might

15 identify certain persons who would need to have their

16 identities protected, if I could ask Your Honour orally

17 at this point to amend that order which was granted by

18 Judge Wang yesterday to be limited to disclosure of the

19 amended indictment and not the supporting materials or

20 the arrest warrants. It's just my concern that having

21 quoted directly from the previous order, I

22 inadvertently asked for more than I really intended

23 to. So that would be my application at this time.

24 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. That is well understood,

25 but the Prosecution is aware that my powers are only

Page 241

1 limited to the Initial Appearance, and now that the

2 case has been assigned to a Trial Chamber, such an

3 application should be made to the Trial Chamber.

4 MR. RYNEVELD: Yes.

5 JUDGE MUMBA: And I will see to it that the

6 decision is delivered as quickly as possible.

7 MR. RYNEVELD: Thank you. Would you

8 anticipate that we need to make a formal written

9 application in addition to putting the Court on notice

10 of our intention now, or making an oral application?

11 I'm just concerned that in the interim the documents

12 may inadvertently be disclosed, and I just wanted to

13 bring to the Court's attention the fact that that might

14 cause irreparable harm.

15 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. The Prosecution is aware

16 again that this has to be to a Trial Chamber and a

17 written motion has to be, I'm afraid, pushed in. But I

18 would take this opportunity to advise the Defence

19 counsel to advise the accused person that the

20 disclosure of confirming materials was inadvertent in

21 that order. The practice normally is that supporting

22 materials are never disclosed. So I do hope that -- I

23 would request of the Defence counsel actually to

24 explain this to the accused person so that the accused

25 is aware that an order is going to be issued to rectify

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1 that problem, so that supporting materials are not

2 disclosed.

3 MR. KOSTIC: Your Honour, at the conclusion

4 of our proceedings today, I will inform Mr. Vukovic in

5 regard to your directive and answer any questions that

6 he might have in regard to the same.

7 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. Thank you very much.

8 Since there are no other matters, I will

9 simply request the registrar to note the proceedings

10 and also to issue a date for the next proceedings that

11 may be necessary following the pleas that have been

12 taken.

13 Any other matters from the Prosecution?

14 MR. RYNEVELD: No, thank you, Your Honour.

15 JUDGE MUMBA: The Defence?

16 MR. KOSTIC: Your Honour, when I spoke to

17 Mr. Vukovic last night, he indicated to me that he was

18 in the process of selecting an attorney.

19 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.

20 MR. KOSTIC: I do not know -- I did not have

21 the opportunity to review whether the attorney is on

22 the assigned counsel list or not, so I'm a little

23 behind on that issue, but I can tell you that the name

24 of the attorney is Goran, G-o-r-a-n, Jovanovic,

25 J-o-v-a-n-o-v-i-c who has offices in Belgrade,

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1 Yugoslavia, and I believe that Mr. Vukovic is in the

2 process of making arrangements to retain him or to name

3 him. I'm not sure which one it is, Your Honour. But

4 that is the attorney who he wants to have represent him

5 in regard to this case.

6 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. Thank you very much.

7 Because it is clear that the accused has got the right

8 to select an attorney. If he can find one, all the

9 better; if not, then he would have to select the

10 attorney from the Registrar's list for purposes of his

11 trial. I do hope that the accused does understand

12 that.

13 MR. KOSTIC: Yes, Your Honour. We've talked

14 about that and I will again reiterate the same

15 directive to him.

16 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you very much. I think

17 we have come to the end of our proceedings this

18 afternoon, and the court will adjourn.

19 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at

20 3.25 p.m. sine die

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