Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 166

1 Tuesday, 10 April 2001

2 [Status Conference]

3 [The appellants entered court]

4 --- Upon commencing at 4.12 p.m.

5 JUDGE WALD: Good afternoon, counsel, defendants, all of the

6 technical staff. I'd ask the registrar to call the case, please.

7 THE REGISTRAR: [Interpretation] Case number IT-95-16-A, the

8 Prosecutor versus Zoran Kupreskic, Mirjan Kupreskic, Vlatko Kupreskic,

9 Drago Josipovic, and Vladimir Santic.

10 JUDGE WALD: Thank you. And now we'll have the appearances

11 starting with the Prosecution.

12 MR. YAPA: May it please, Your Honour, I'm Upawansa Yapa appearing

13 for the Prosecution, with Mr. Norman Farrell.

14 JUDGE WALD: Thank you. And now counsel for Zoran Kupreskic.

15 MR. RADOVIC: [Interpretation] Ranko Radovic, representing Zoran

16 Kupreskic.

17 JUDGE WALD: Mirjan Kupreskic.

18 MS. SLOKOVIC-GLUMAC: [Interpretation] Good day, Your Honour. I'm

19 Jadranka Slokovic-Glumac, representing Mirjan Kupreskic.

20 JUDGE WALD: Drago Josipovic.

21 MR. SUSAK: [Interpretation] My name is Luka Susak, and I am

22 defending Drago Josipovic.

23 JUDGE WALD: And Vlatko Kupreskic.

24 MR. ABELL: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Anthony Abell

25 representing Vlatko Kupreskic.

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1 JUDGE WALD: Do we have anyone representing Mr. Santic here? No?

2 All right. Oh, okay.

3 MR. PAVKOVIC: [Interpretation] Good day, Your Honour. I'm Petar

4 Pavkovic, and I'm defending Vladimir Santic.

5 JUDGE WALD: Now, as you all know, the Status Conference is

6 convened pursuant to Rule 65 bis of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of

7 the Tribunal, which requires us to have a Status Conference every 120 days

8 primarily to allow the accused to raise any issues relating to their

9 health or conditions of detention, but it is also an opportunity for us to

10 ensure that matters are proceeding expeditiously toward the appeals

11 hearing.

12 So I will take the liberty of telling you what information -

13 excuse me - I presently have about how things are proceeding on this

14 appeal and then we will close by listening to any comments or complaints

15 that the defendants may have. Altogether, it should be a relatively short

16 status hearing.

17 The first item that I would inform you about is that the decision

18 on the matters which were taken up during the oral hearing on the 30th of

19 March will be issued, will be filed with the Registrar and issued by the

20 end of this week, unless something completely unforeseen happens. So it

21 should be available to you by the end of the week, if not sooner.

22 Now, I'm also aware that there are other outstanding Rule 115

23 motions, among which are the motion filed by Drago Josipovic on the 21st

24 of March, 2001, the Rule 115 motion number 5 filed on 21 March, 2001, by

25 Zoran Kupreskic, and a recently received second Rule 115 motion from

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1 Vlatko Kupreskic filed 6th of April, 2001, with a related motion, and all

2 of those are under consideration, and we anticipate that a decision on

3 those motions will be filed next week.

4 So we also have every reason to expect that a decision by the

5 President of the Tribunal will be issued tomorrow, possibly even late

6 today but more probably tomorrow, on whether or not he will authorise the

7 Prosecution to release the Witness AT material to all of the appellants.

8 Now, if he should decide to issue the AT material to all of the appellants

9 under whatever conditions are deemed appropriate, then we will issue a

10 scheduling order promptly thereafter which will inform the parties of the

11 timetable that will have to be observed for filing any Rule 115 motions

12 relating to that material.

13 We are aware of one such motion already filed, and that will be

14 decided at the same time as all of the motions relating to that material

15 that's covered in the President's decision. And I must tell you, that

16 given the expeditious route on which we are embarked, that the parties

17 will be held to strictly comply with those deadlines.

18 Now, as soon as we can, which would be after all of these

19 decisions have been issued - hopefully that would be sometime toward the

20 latter part of next week - a Scheduling Order will be issued which will

21 put forth the timetable for resummation of the briefing schedule, taking

22 into account the fact that there may at that time, there may be, pending

23 115 motions dealing with material covered by the President's decision,

24 depending on a number of possibilities.

25 So I can indicate to you only the very approximate contours of

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1 that timetable, but I will do so just so you have a notion of the route

2 down which we are going, and that would be that supplementary briefs

3 dealing with any new materials which are admitted, either by the decision

4 coming down tomorrow or by any of the other decisions coming down next

5 week, or by the decisions coming down on the 115 motions concerning the AT

6 transcripts and materials, we would expect to have supplementary briefs by

7 approximately May 25th; and then we would ask for the respondents' brief

8 which would be able at that point to take account of all material that

9 will be finally in the appeals record by approximately the 11th of June,

10 with reply briefs about the 26th of June, which would allow us to have

11 oral argument in July and allow us to begin working on the judgement over

12 the holiday, if that's what it is, and get us to the final judgement date

13 sometime in the fall.

14 So that's roughly where we are. You could -- you should expect

15 these various actions which I've laid out within the next week. Of

16 course, you will be informed, but you can be ready to receive and to act

17 thereof.

18 Now, before I move on to the -- asking the appellants about their

19 feelings on any problems that are concerning them in detention, let me let

20 the floor open and see if there are any questions concerning what I'm able

21 to tell you now, which is as much as I am able to tell you now.

22 Let's start with the Prosecution. Anything you wish to raise or

23 any questions you have?

24 MR. YAPA: At present we do not have any matter to be raised to

25 Your Honour. I must be very thankful to Your Honour for giving all the

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1 information. That helps us a great deal.

2 JUDGE WALD: Good. Now, let me go down in the same order that I

3 asked you for your appearances. Let's have counsel for Mr. Zoran

4 Kupreskic first.

5 Mr. Radovic?

6 MR. RADOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, as counsel for Zoran

7 Kupreskic, and my colleague, who is representing Mirjan Kupreskic, we are

8 interested in the status of our proposal for the provisional release of

9 Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic at this point. This is all that we're interest

10 in. We have submitted this motion. We were informed that the Netherlands

11 do not accept their presence here. Bosnia does not accept that either.

12 So we have not received any kind of notification from the Registry

13 regarding this.

14 JUDGE WALD: Well, I can inform you to this degree, Mr. Radovic:

15 We're certainly aware of the motion. It has been under consideration

16 along with the other motions, and you will -- you will hear from us again

17 within the quite near future on that. That's all I'm able to tell you at

18 this time.

19 Ms. Slokovic-Glumac, do you have anything to ...

20 MS. SLOKOVIC-GLUMAC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, we don't have

21 any additional questions at present. The only thing is, of course, we

22 will see, once the final proposal is made of what you have just laid out

23 before us now for the schedule during June and July, then we will see

24 whether it will be possible for us to keep up with that schedule. So far,

25 we are quite satisfied with that suggestion. Thank you very much.

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1 JUDGE WALD: If it's any comfort to you, Ms. Slokovic-Glumac, I

2 sometimes wonder if I can keep up with the schedule that we're setting,

3 but we will do our level best because we all mean to get this appeal

4 done.

5 Now counsel for Mr. Josipovic, Mr. Susak.

6 MR. SUSAK: [Interpretation] Your Honour, we don't have any

7 questions or remarks. Thank you.

8 JUDGE WALD: And counsel for Vlatko Kupreskic, Mr. Abell.

9 MR. ABELL: No questions or submissions to make. May I thank Your

10 Honour for explaining to us so succinctly and promptly what is your

11 envisaged timetable is. It's most helpful to us. Obviously, we reserve

12 the right, once we've seen it on the paper and in detail, to make written

13 submissions.

14 JUDGE WALD: To screen.

15 MR. ABELL: I'm sure it won't be screening, Your Honour, but thank

16 you very much.

17 JUDGE WALD: All right. Counsel for Mr. Santic, do you have

18 anything to ...

19 MR. PAVKOVIC: [Interpretation] The Defence for Vladimir Santic

20 doesn't have any remarks or additional submissions. We are very grateful

21 for all your devotion and desire for an expeditious proceeding. Thank

22 you.

23 JUDGE WALD: Thank you.

24 Now I will call on the defendants or the appellants themselves

25 and -- to see if -- as you know, one of the purposes of the status hearing

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1 is to make sure that we know of any problems the appellants have

2 encountered in detention or otherwise.

3 So I'd start with you, Mr. Zoran Kupreskic.

4 THE APPELLANT Z. KUPRESKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I do

5 have one remark. If our counsel don't have anything to say, I do.

6 Recently when we are receiving any kind of decisions by the Appeals

7 Chamber, we either don't receive them at all or we don't receive them in

8 time. As far as I know, in the Statute there is a provision which states

9 that the accused should be informed in the language that he understands

10 about all the things that are happening in the courtroom. Your most

11 recent decision rejecting some evidence which should have been accepted or

12 rejected in accordance with Rule 115, we did not receive it from the

13 Registry at all, and when we did receive it from our counsel, this was

14 already a fait accompli and there was nothing we could do about it. It

15 was closed.

16 Also, whenever we have a Status Conference, we receive the

17 decision on that Status Conference in 10 or 15 days. The ruling, the

18 decision on this Status Conference will be provided to us in 10 or 15

19 days. I can't believe that there are so many difficulties for us to

20 receive an a document. The decision from the previous Status Conference

21 we only received yesterday, and this is all I have to say at the moment.

22 Thank you.

23 JUDGE WALD: I certainly have been listening carefully to your

24 complaint, and at this point, I will simply say that I will look into it.

25 I will find out what the procedures are for having the various documents

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1 delivered to the accused in detention. Thank you for your comment.

2 THE APPELLANT Z. KUPRESKIC: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.

3 JUDGE WALD: Mr. Mirjan Kupreskic.

4 THE APPELLANT M. KUPRESKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I am

5 Mirjan Kupreskic. I don't have anything particular to add to what Zoran

6 has already stated.

7 JUDGE WALD: Thank you.

8 Mr. Josipovic.

9 THE APPELLANT JOSIPOVIC: [Interpretation] I am Drago Josipovic,

10 and I don't have any remarks at the moment. Thank you.

11 JUDGE WALD: Mr. Vlatko Kupreskic.

12 THE APPELLANT V. KUPRESKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, as far

13 as the conditions of detention, I have no special remarks to make. Also

14 regarding all the other issues, the only thing that is making me happy is

15 this rather optimistic schedule that you have talked about, and I hope it

16 will be something that's realised. Thank you very much.

17 JUDGE WALD: I hope so too.

18 And finally, Mr. Santic.

19 THE APPELLANT SANTIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I don't have

20 any questions or any remarks. Thank you.

21 JUDGE WALD: Thank you. You obviously are a very cooperative

22 group of defendants.

23 I, too, hope that we will be able to keep to a schedule and get

24 this matter finally judged in the optimal amount of time.

25 I don't have anything else, and I think we can adjourn the Status

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1 Conference. I will make some inquiries to see if I can find out what

2 exactly the system is of getting you informed of various decisions.

3 Otherwise, I would suggest everybody just keeps their eyes and ears open

4 for a barrage of impending decisions which should be coming down within

5 the next week.

6 Thank you very much and the Status Conference is adjourned.

7 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned

8 at 4.28 p.m.

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