Case No. IT-03-70-PT

Prosecutor v. Nebojsa Pavkovic

DECISION

THE DEPUTY REGISTRAR,

NOTING the Statute of the Tribunal as adopted by the Security Council under Resolution 827 (1993), and in particular Article 21 thereof;

NOTING the Rules of Procedure and Evidence as adopted by the Tribunal on 11 February 1994, as subsequently amended ("Rules"), and in particular Rules 44 and 45 thereof;

NOTING the Directive on Assignment of Defence Counsel as adopted by the Tribunal on 28 July 1994, as subsequently amended ("Directive"), and in particular Articles 11(B), 14 and 16(C) thereof;

NOTING the Code of Professional Conduct for Counsel Appearing Before the International Tribunal;

CONSIDERING that Nebojsa Pavkovic ("Accused") was transferred to the seat of the Tribunal on 25 April 2005, and that his initial appearance was held on 28 April 2005;

CONSIDERING that on 28 April 2005, pursuant to Rule 45(C) of the Rules, the Deputy Registrar assigned Ms Chrissa Loukas as duty counsel to the Accused for the purposes of his initial appearance and for such other matters as necessary until replacement counsel was assigned;

CONSIDERING that the Accused has applied for the assignment of Tribunal-paid counsel pursuant to Article 8 of the Directive on the basis that he does not have sufficient means to remunerate counsel;

CONSIDERING that the Registry has not yet determined whether or to what extent the Accused is able to remunerate counsel;

CONSIDERING that on 13 June 2005, to ensure that the Accused’s right to counsel is protected while the Registry determines whether he is able to remunerate counsel, the Deputy Registrar assigned Mr John Ackerman, attorney at law from the United States, as lead counsel to the Accused for a period of 120 days pursuant to Article 11(B) of the Directive;

CONSIDERING that Mr Ackerman has requested the assignment of Mr Aleksandar Aleksić, attorney at law from Serbia and Montenegro, as his co-counsel;

CONSIDERING that Mr Aleksic is on the Tribunal’s list of counsel eligible for assignment to indigent suspects and accused but because he does not speak a working language of the Tribunal to the requisite standard, he is eligible for assignment as co-counsel only;

CONSIDERING that Mr Aleksic previously appeared as temporary counsel for Dragoljub Kunarac in The Prosecutor v Kunarac et al. (IT-96-23);

CONSIDERING that the Registry has ascertained that no conflict of interest exists between Mr Aleksic’s prior representation of Mr Kunarac and his representation of the Accused;

CONSIDERING that pursuant to Article 16(C)(ii) of the Directive, the Registrar may assign a co-counsel who does not speak either of the two working languages of the Tribunal but who speaks the native language of the accused if it is in the interests of justice in a particular case;

CONSIDERING that, having reviewed the submissions of Mr Ackerman, the Registry is of the view that in the Accused’s case it is in the interests of justice to assign Mr Aleksić as co-counsel;

CONSIDERING that Mr Aleksić has indicated his willingness to be assigned as co-counsel;

HEREBY DECIDES to assign Mr Aleksić as co-counsel to Mr Ackerman, effective as of the date of this decision.

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John Hocking
Deputy Registrar

Dated this seventeenth day of June 2005
At The Hague,
The Netherlands.