Case No.: IT-04-83-PT
IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER
Before:
Judge Patrick Robinson, Presiding
Judge O-Gon Kwon
Judge Iain Bonomy
Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis
Order of:
28 April 2006
PROSECUTOR
v.
RASIM DELIC
_________________________________________________
ORDER ON AMENDED INDICTMENTS AND CHALLENGES THERETO
_________________________________________________
Office of the Prosecutor
Mr. Daryl Mundis
Ms. Tecla Henry-Benjamin
Mr. Matthias Neuner
Mr. Kyle Wood
Counsel for Rasim Delic
Ms. Vasvija Vidovic
Ms. Quincy Whitaker
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 ("Tribunal"),
BEING SEIZED of the Prosecution’s partly confidential "Submission of Amended Indictment pursuant to Trial Chamber Decision of 13 December 2005", filed on 20 January 2006 ("January 2006 Motion to Amend"), in which the Prosecution submits an amended Indictment ("January 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment") purporting to implement several changes ordered by the Trial Chamber in its decision of 13 December 2005 ("December 2005 Decision"),1
BEING ALSO SEIZED of the "Corrigendum to Prosecution’s Submission of Amended Indictment pursuant to Trial Chamber Decision of 13 December 2005", filed on 23 January 2006 ("January 2006 Corrigendum"), in which the Prosecution proposes to correct an "unintentionally misleading" sentence in the January 2006 Motion to Amend,2
BEING ALSO SEIZED of the "Second Defence Motion Alleging Defects in the Form of the Indictment", filed on 17 February 2006 ("February 2006 Defence Challenge"), in which the Defence of Rasim Delic ("Defence") claims that the January 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment contains a number of "remaining defects" which, "despite the ruling of the Trial Chamber [of 13 December 2005], have not been cured by the submission by the Prosecution of the Amended Indictment",3 and requests the Trial Chamber to order the Prosecution "to cure these defects and accordingly file a further Amended Indictment",4
BEING ALSO SEIZED of the partly confidential "Prosecution Response to the Second Defence Motion Alleging Defects in the Form of the Indictment", filed on 28 February 2006 ("February 2006 Prosecution Response"), in which the Prosecution proposes one change to the 20 January Proposed Amended Indictment in response to the February 2006 Defence Challenge, but otherwise requests that the Trial Chamber dismiss the challenge in its entirety,5
BEING ALSO SEIZED of the partly confidential "Prosecution’s Submission of Proposed Second Amended Indictment and Application for Leave to Amend", filed on 18 April 2006 ("April 2006 Motion to Amend"), in which the Prosecution submits another amended Indictment ("April 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment") seeking leave to amend the January 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment to include allegations concerning the additional crime bases of Grabovica, Uzdol, and Bugojno, and to charge certain crimes not only pursuant to Article 7(3) of the Statute of the Tribunal, but also Article 7(1),6
BEING ALSO SEIZED of the "Defence Response to Prosecution’s Submission of Proposed Second Amended Indictment and Application for Leave to Amend", filed on 26 April 2006 ("April 2006 Defence Challenge"), in which the Defence requests the Trial Chamber to deny the April 2006 Motion to Amend and "to strike the continued inclusion in the Indictment of the allegation concerning events at Maline in the light of the Judgement in … Hadzihasanovic [and] Kubura",7
CONSIDERING that the April 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment was filed within 30 days of the Hadzihasanovic and Kubura Trial Judgement, and that it was therefore submitted in a timely manner in accordance with the December 2005 Decision,8
NOTING that, at the 2 March 2006 status conference, both parties expressed their assent to the Pre-Trial Judge’s proposal for the Trial Chamber to consider together any and all challenges to the January 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment on the one hand, and the further amended indictment anticipated to follow Hadzihasanovic and Kubura on the other,9 and NOTING that this further amended indictment was ultimately filed on 18 April 2006,101
NOTING that the initial Indictment in this case was filed on 15 February 2005, confirmed by Judge Carmel Agius on 16 February 2005, and unsealed on 23 February 2005;11 that a redacted version of this Indictment was filed on 17 March 2005 ("March 2005 Indictment");12 and that the March 2005 Indictment was the indictment at issue in the December 2005 Decision,13
CONSIDERING that the March 2005 Indictment continues to be the operative indictment in this case,
NOTING that, despite this fact, the Prosecution formulated the April 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment as if all the proposed changes in the January 2006 Proposed Amended Indictment had already been approved by the Trial Chamber,14
CONSIDERING that concerns for judicial economy warrant the submission of a single, consolidated amended indictment and a consolidated challenge thereto,
PURSUANT TO Rules 50, 54, and 72 of the Rules, hereby ORDERS as follows:
Done in English and French, the English text being authoritative.
Dated this twenty-eighth day of April 2006
At The Hague
The Netherlands
_______________________
Judge Patrick Robinson
Presiding
[Seal of the Tribunal]