Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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1 Monday, 18 June 2001

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 4.35 p.m.

6 JUDGE POCAR: This Status Conference is called to order. Madam

7 Registrar, may you please call the case.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Case number IT-95-14-A, the Prosecutor versus

9 Tihomir Blaskic.

10 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. May I ask first, Mr. Blaskic, if you can

11 hear the proceedings. Is there any problem with the translation? Can you

12 hear me?

13 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. I

14 can hear you well and I have no problem whatsoever with the

15 interpretation.

16 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.

17 May I now call for the appearances. Let's start with

18 Mr. Blaskic -- for the appellant.

19 MR. HAYMAN: Yes. Good afternoon, Your Honour. Russell Hayman

20 and Andrew Paley appearing on behalf of the appellant telephonically from

21 Los Angeles.

22 JUDGE POCAR: I know Mr. Paley is on the phone link.

23 MR. PALEY: Yes, Your Honour. That's right.

24 JUDGE POCAR: Good.

25 MR. NOBILO: [Interpretation] I am Anto Nobilo, also Defence

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1 counsel for General Blaskic, and I am here present in the courtroom.

2 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.

3 For the Prosecutor.

4 MR. YAPA: May it please Your Honour. I'm Upawansa Yapa. I

5 appear for the Prosecution with Mr. Norman Farrell.

6 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. The previous Status Conference was held

7 on the 21st of February, and according to the Rules, particularly Rule 65

8 bis (B), a Status Conference has to be called at least every 120 days.

9 The purpose of this Status Conference is, on the one hand, to update the

10 appellant with respect to the state of his appeal, and on the other hand,

11 to allow the appellant to express any concerns as to his detention

12 conditions, and directly through counsel, of course.

13 Now, let me first perhaps ask Mr. Blaskic and his counsel if they

14 have any concern to address concerning the conditions of detention.

15 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I have no questions

16 to raise regarding my treatment in the Detention Unit of the United

17 Nations.

18 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you, Mr. Blaskic, and I remind you that in

19 case any problem arises, you may avail yourself of the Rules concerning

20 complaints, if the case may be.

21 Now, as to the appeal, the situation is at the moment the

22 following: In April, on the 19th of April, the Prosecution submitted its

23 response to the appellant's brief in support of his motion to admit

24 additional evidence on appeal, according to Rule 115 of the Rules. And

25 the deadline for the appellant to file his reply brief in support of this

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1 motion expires on the 18th of June, 2001. That is exactly today. I

2 haven't received anything, but perhaps in between this reply has been

3 filed, although it hasn't reached my desk.

4 So if, as I understand, the reply has been submitted today, the

5 Appeal Chamber will have to decide on the admission -- on the motion on

6 the admission of the additional evidence. I just had confirmation that

7 the reply has been filed today.

8 So as I say, the Appeal Chamber will have to make a decision on

9 the motion. What I can probably say, that this decision will require some

10 time because the parties -- there's a large volume of documentary evidence

11 that has been tendered and the Appeal Chamber will have to carefully

12 review all this documentary evidence, and I can foresee that that will

13 require some time. But of course, the parties will be informed in due

14 course when the Appeal Chamber will make a decision on the evidence, on

15 the additional evidence. And once that will be done, we will resume a

16 Briefing Schedule, but I can think that won't be before, let's say, a

17 couple of months at least. But then we have summer, so it will be after

18 summer, probably. Will be in September or so. This is the situation as I

19 see it, as I see it now.

20 Are there any matters to be raised as far as this motion is

21 concerned?

22 MR. NOBILO: [Interpretation] No, thank you.

23 JUDGE POCAR: I understand it's not the case.

24 So may I ask the parties if there is any other matter that they

25 want to raise at this stage in the Status Conference. The Prosecution?

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1 MR. YAPA: No, we do not have any.

2 JUDGE POCAR: No. Defence?

3 MR. NOBILO: [Interpretation] I don't think so, unless my

4 colleague, Russell Hayman, who is now on the telephone, has something to

5 raise.

6 JUDGE POCAR: Well, I heard your colleague on the phone saying at

7 the same time that he had nothing to raise. Is that correct?

8 MR. HAYMAN: That's correct, Your Honour. We look forward to

9 further communication from the Appellant Chamber concerning our motion.

10 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you.

11 So if there are no other matters to be dealt with, I think we can

12 adjourn the meeting, so the meeting stands adjourned.

13 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at

14 4.45 p.m.

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