Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 17

1 Thursday, 17 February 2005

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 2.15 p.m.

6 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Good afternoon.

7 Madam Registrar, please call the case.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Case number

9 IT-95-9-A, the Prosecutor versus Blagoje Simic.

10 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Mr. Simic, can you tell me if you're

11 able to listen to the proceedings and to follow the proceedings.

12 Thank you.

13 May I have the appearances, please, starting with the Prosecution.

14 MS. GOY: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Barbara Goy appearing for

15 the Prosecution, together with Senior Appeals Counsel, Mr. Norm Farrell,

16 and our case manager, Ms. Susan Grogan.

17 JUDGE GUNEY: Thank you very much. [Interpretation] Let me turn

18 to the Defence of Mr. Simic.

19 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. My

20 name is Pantelic, I represent Blagoje Simic, Dr. Blagoje Simic, and today

21 with me I have my co-counsel who is going to introduce himself. Thank you

22 very much.

23 MR. MURPHY: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. Peter

24 Murphy for the accused.

25 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.

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1 Under Rule 75 bis (B) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, a

2 Status Conference has to be convened 120 days within the filing of the

3 notice of appeal, and then every 120 days thereafter, to give the

4 opportunity to the person detained and waiting for an appeal judgement the

5 opportunity to raise any issues related to their proceedings.

6 In the present case, Mr. Simic filed his notice of appeal against

7 the judgement delivered against him on the 17th of October, 2003. All

8 pleadings related to the appeals proceeding have been filed, and this is

9 the fourth Status Conference convened in this appeals proceedings.

10 One of the objectives of this Status Conference is to allow

11 Mr. Simic to raise any concerns he might have regarding his detention

12 conditions or to his physical or mental state.

13 Mr. Simic, would you or your counsel address the Chamber about any

14 concerns related to these issues.

15 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I believe that my

16 client will talk to you.

17 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] You have the floor, Mr. Simic.

18 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I have nothing to

19 raise in regard to my stay in detention, nothing specific to mention or

20 any objections to raise. I just wish to thank you for having allowed me

21 to be released to visit the grave of my father. Thank you.

22 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. You can sit

23 down.

24 Let's now talk about the status of the appeals proceedings in this

25 case. All written submissions related to the appeal have been filed, and

Page 19

1 no application from the parties is pending before the Chamber. In terms

2 of the proceedings, I'd like to inform the parties that the decision

3 related to the application filed by Franko Simatovic requesting access to

4 documents in the Bosanski Samac case will be delivered in the next few

5 days.

6 Finally, I would like to state that the date for the appeals

7 hearings has not been set yet by the Appeals Chamber.

8 This being said, I have no other issues to address. However, I

9 would like to turn to the parties to ask them if they want to make any

10 comments or raise any issues.

11 Madam Prosecutor.

12 MS. GOY: Thank you, Your Honour. No, there is nothing we would

13 like to raise.

14 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.

15 Mr. Pantelic.

16 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, same thing for the

17 Defence; we do not have any issues to raise before the Chamber. Thank

18 you.

19 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

20 [In English] I see none.

21 [Interpretation] Since there aren't any other issues for us to

22 consider, this Status Conference stands now adjourned.

23 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned

24 at 2.21 p.m.

25