THE TRIAL CHAMBER

BEING SEISED of the Application For The Provisional Release Of The Accused Vlatko Kupreskic From The Detention filed on 29 March 1998 ("the Motion") and of the Prosecutor’s Response thereto filed on 14 April 1998,

NOTING the preliminary conclusions of the medical report submitted in support of the Motion to the effect that Vlatko Kupreskic is physically capable to stand trial and does not at this stage appear to need specific medical care,

NOTING that pursuant to Rule 65 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal provisional release may be ordered only in exceptional circumstances,

NOTING FURTHER that the practice of the International Tribunal on this point is well established (see, for example, Decision Rejecting a Request for Provisional Release rendered on 25 April 1996 in Prosecutor v. Blaskic, Case No. IT-95-14, Decision on Motion for Provisional Release filed by the Accused Zejnil Delalic rendered on 25 September 1996 in Prosecutor v. Delalic et al., Case No. International Tribunal-96-21, Decision on Defence Motion for Provisional Release rendered on 20 January 1998 in Prosecutor v. Kovacevic, Case No. IT-97-24)

CONSIDERING that the Defence has failed to show that exceptional circumstances exist in this case,

HEREBY DISMISSES THE MOTION.

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

_________________________

Antonio Cassese

Presiding Judge

Dated this fifteenth day of May 1998

At The Hague

The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]