Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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 1                           Friday, 8 July 2011

 2                           [Status Conference]

 3                           [Open session]

 4                           [The appellant entered court]

 5                           [The Appellant Milan Lukic not present]

 6                           --- Upon commencing at 10.02 a.m.

 7             JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Good morning to everyone.  The

 8     Court is in session.

 9             Mr. Registrar, could you please call the case, please.

10     Madam Registrar, I'm sorry.

11             THE REGISTRAR:  Thank you, Your Honour.  Good morning,

12     Your Honour.  This is case number IT-98-32/1-A, the Prosecutor versus

13     Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic.

14             JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

15             I see that Mr. Milan Lukic is not in the courtroom today.

16             Milan Lukic's counsel, do you have any arguments to put forward

17     relating to this matter?

18             MR. IVETIC:  Yes, Your Honour, thank you.  First of all, good

19     morning, Your Honour.  Dan Ivetic appearing for Mr. Milan Lukic.  And I

20     would just like to advise the Chamber that my client will not be

21     attending today's status hearing in light of some continuing concerns and

22     difficulties that he is experiencing in regards to the new transport

23     method from UNDU to the Tribunal.  These concerns have been previously

24     communicated to the relevant authorities, so I will not repeat them here.

25     And it is my understanding, which I have confirmed, that a written waiver


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 1     of his appearance has been executed by my client and that we may

 2     therefore proceed with today's hearing without any problems in his

 3     absence.  Thank you, Your Honour.

 4             JUDGE GUNEY:  Thank you very much for the explanation.  We have

 5     the written consent, I think, on this respect.  In addition to that, it

 6     is always possible, according to the Rules 80, 81 of the Rules governing

 7     the detention to file a request for complaint to the Commanding Officer and

 8     if necessary to the Registrar.  Having said that, we can resume our hearing

 9     in the absence of Milan Lukic.

10             Mr. Sredoje Lukic, are you able to follow the proceedings in a

11     language you understand?

12             THE APPELLANT SREDOJE LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.

13            JUDGE GUNEY:  Thank you very much.  [Interpretation] You may sit down.

14             I would like to have the appearances now, please.  The OTP first,

15     please.

16             MR. KREMER:  Good morning, Mr. President.  Peter Kremer and

17     Matthew Gillett appearing on behalf of the Prosecution, with our

18     Case Manager, Colin Nawrot.

19             JUDGE GUNEY:  Thank you very much.  [Interpretation] Let me now

20     turn to Defence counsel of Mr. Milan Lukic.

21             MR. IVETIC:  Good morning, Your Honour, again.  Dan Ivetic

22     appearing on behalf of Milan Lukic.

23             JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Let me now turn to Defence counsel

24     of Mr. Sredoje Lukic.

25             MR. CEPIC:  Good morning, Your Honour.  On behalf of the


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 1     Sredoje Lukic Defence team, myself, Djuro Cepic as Defence counsel.

 2     Appearing with me, my learned friend Mr. Jens Dieckmann as a co-counsel.

 3     Thank you.

 4             JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] This Status Conference has been

 5     convened pursuant to Rule 65 bis (B) and (C) of the Rules of Procedure

 6     and Evidence of this Tribunal that require a Status Conference to be held

 7     within 120 days of the filing of a Notice of Appeal and thereafter,

 8     within 120 days after the last Status Conference.

 9             The main focus of a Status Conference is to allow any person in

10     custody pending appeal the opportunity to raise issues relating thereto

11     including the mental and physical condition of that person.  This is the

12     sixth Status Conference to be convened in the appeals proceedings in this

13     case.  The last Status Conference was held on March 10th, 2011.

14             The Appeals Chamber has already issued two decisions yesterday

15     regarding the first and second motion seeking to adduce further evidence

16     and filed by Milan Lukic.  The decisions pertaining to the other motions

17     pursuant to Rule 115 and filed by Milan Lukic will be issued in due

18     course before the appeals hearings.

19             Lastly, the appeals hearings will be held on

20     September 14th and 15th, 2011.  A Scheduling Order will be issued today.

21     It will specify the times of the hearings and the time allocated to each

22     party for their oral submissions.

23             As regards the questions suggested to the parties by the Bench,

24     these will be addressed in a separate order which will be issued in due

25     course.


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 1             I would now like to turn to Milan Lukic and Milan Lukic's Defence

 2     counsel and Sredoje Lukic to inquire into their state of health and

 3     conditions of detention.  Let me first turn to Milan Lukic's Defence

 4     counsel.

 5             Did Milan Lukic share with you any concerns he may have as

 6     regards his conditions of detention or his state of health?

 7             MR. IVETIC:  Your Honour, it's my understanding that everything,

 8     the status quo from the last status hearing, remains, that he has not

 9     communicated any new concerns relative to his detention.

10             JUDGE GUNEY:  Thank you very much.

11             [Interpretation] Let me now turn to Mr. Sredoje Lukic.  Do you

12     wish to share with the Bench any concerns you may have regarding your

13     conditions of detention or your state of health?

14             THE APPELLANT SREDOJE LUKIC: [Interpretation] Thank you,

15     Your Honour, for allowing me to speak.  I am quite pleased with my

16     treatment at the UNDU, and my health is quite good.

17             JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.  You may sit down.

18             I would lastly like to ask the parties whether at this stage they

19     have any questions they wish to raise during the Status Conference.

20             Let me first turn to the representatives of the OTP.

21             MR. KREMER:  Thank you, Mr. President.  We have no further

22     issues.  You've answered all of our concerns earlier in your remarks.

23     Thank you.

24             JUDGE GUNEY:  Thank you very much.

25             [Interpretation] Milan Lukic's Defence counsel, I'm turning to


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 1     you.  Do you wish to raise any particular issue?

 2             MR. IVETIC:  Your Honour, we have no other issues to raise with

 3     you this morning.  Thank you.

 4             JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Let me now turn to

 5     Mr. Sredoje Lukic's Defence counsel.  Do you wish to raise any particular

 6     issue at this stage?

 7             MR. CEPIC:  Thank you, Your Honour, for this opportunity.  At

 8     this moment the only problem for our Defence team is that

 9     Professor Knoops is occupied on 14th and 15th of September, but I will

10     try to solve that issue with him as soon as this Status Conference will

11     be completed.  Any other issues there is no reason to raise from our side

12     at this moment.  Thank you very much.

13             JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.  I hope you will be able

14     to solve the problems you are faced with in the near future.

15             As far as I'm concerned, I have no further issue to raise.  I

16     believe, therefore, that we can adjourn today's hearing.  I would like to

17     thank the parties for their attendance and the staff of the Tribunal for

18     their help in organising this conference.

19             The hearing stands adjourned.

20                           --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 10.16 a.m.

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