IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Patrick Robinson, Presiding
Judge David Hunt
Judge Mohamed Bennouna

Registrar:
Mrs. Dorothee de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh

Decision of:
4 April 2000

PROSECUTOR

v.

BLAGOJE SIMIC
MILAN SIMIC
MIROSLAV TADIC
STEVAN TODOROVIC
SIMO ZARIC

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DECISION ON PROSECUTOR’S MOTION FOR STAY

______________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor

Mr. Grant Niemann
Ms. Nancy Paterson
Ms. Suzanne Hayden

Counsel for the accused

Mr. Slobodan Zecevic, for Milan Simic
Mr. Igor Pantelic and Mr. Novak Lukic, for Miroslav Tadic
Mr. Deyan Ranko Brashich, for Stevan Todorovic
Mr. Borislav Pisarevic and Mr. Aleksander Lazarevic, for Simo Zaric

 

THIS TRIAL CHAMBER of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 ("International Tribunal"),

NOTING the Trial Chamber’s "Order on Defence Requests for Judicial Assistance for the Production of Information", filed on 7 March 2000 ("7 March Order") which requires the Office of the Prosecutor ("Prosecution") to produce certain documents to defence counsel for one of the accused in this case, Stevan Todorovic, by 4 April 2000,

NOTING the Prosecution’s application for leave to appeal the 7 March Order, filed on 14 March 2000,

BEING SEISED of the Prosecutor’s motion for a stay, filed on 22 March 2000, in which the Prosecution seeks: (i) a stay of the Trial Chamber’s 7 March Order until twenty-eight days after the final resolution of the Prosecution’s application for leave to appeal the 7 March Order and any resulting appeal proceedings, and (ii) an order from the Trial Chamber requiring Defence counsel for Stevan Todorovic, to desist from further unauthorised requests for information,

NOTING the response of defence counsel for Stevan Todorovic, filed on 27 March 2000, (i) opposing the stay, but, in the event a stay is granted, arguing that it should extend only until the Prosecution’s application for leave to appeal has been disposed of, and that any further stay should be determined by the Appeals Chamber, and (ii) contending that his efforts to elicit co-operation from SFOR in providing materials relevant to the preparation of the Defence are neither premature, nor unauthorised,

NOTING also the further response of defence counsel for Stevan Todorovic, filed on 31 March 2000, affirming his opposition to any stay and asserting that the Prosecution has itself produced evidence of similar nature in other cases,

CONSIDERING that failure to grant the requested stay would effectively exclude the Prosecution’s ability to challenge the Trial Chamber’s 7 March Order,

CONSIDERING that counsel for an accused before the International Tribunal is entitled to seek the co-operation of any individual, entity or State in providing information pertinent to the preparation of his defence,

PURSUANT to Rule 54 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal,

GRANTS a stay of the 7 March Order, pending the final resolution of the application for leave to appeal, or any appeals that may arise therefrom, whichever is later, and

DECLINES to issue an order to defence counsel for Stevan Todorovic to desist from issuing unauthorised requests for information,

 

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

_____________________
Patrick Robinson
Presiding Judge

Dated this fourth day of April 2000
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]