Page 6
1 Wednesday, 8 September 2004
2 [Status Conference]
3 [The appellant entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 2.30 p.m.
5 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, everyone.
6 Mr. Registrar, would you please call the case which is scheduled
7 for the present hearing.
8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. This is case number
9 IT-94-2-A, Dragan Nikolic versus the Prosecutor.
10 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Very well. Thank you.
11 Mr. Dragan Nikolic, can you follow and understand the proceedings?
12 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.
13 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. You may be seated.
14 Can I have the appearances, please. Let's start with the
15 representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor.
16 MR. McKEON: Good afternoon, Your Honour. My name is Mark McKeon.
17 I'm a senior appeals counsel. Although we will be sending a more formal
18 notification later, I can advise the Court now that I will be taking over
19 this case from Mr. Norman Farrell, who is also senior appeals counsel.
20 With me at counsel table is appeals counsel Susan Lamb and our
21 case manager Lourdes Galicia. Thank you.
22 JUDGE GUNEY: Thank you. I would like to welcome you and wish you
23 all the best.
24 MR. McKEON: Thank you, Your Honour.
25 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Let me now turn to the
Page 7
1 representatives of the Defence of Mr. Dragan Nikolic.
2 MR. MORRISON: Bonjour, Monsieur Juge. Howard Morrison and Tanja
3 Radosavljevic for the defendant Dragan Nikolic.
4 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. Pursuant to
5 Article 65 bis of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of this Tribunal, a
6 Status Conference shall be held within 120 days of the filing of the
7 notice of appeal in order to give the possibility to the accused or,
8 rather, to the appellant to raise the issues which he or she may deem
9 important.
10 As far as the present case is concerned, a notice of appeal has
11 been filed by Mr. Dragan Nikolic on the 16th of January, 2004. A first
12 Status Conference in this case was held on the 14th of May, 2004. This
13 present Status Conference has for its objective to examine the state of
14 the case and to give the accused the possibility of raising any issues
15 that he may deem important, in particular his mental and physical health.
16 Mr. Nikolic, or perhaps his counsel, do you wish to address the
17 Chamber on any of the issues that I have just mentioned?
18 MR. MORRISON: Your Honour, the position is this: As far as the
19 appeal is concerned, the appellant's brief in support of the appeal
20 against sentence has been filed as indeed has been the response or reply
21 from the Office of the Prosecutor with a further and last response from
22 the appellant. So all of the paperwork is now extant and has been filed
23 and served upon all the parties. So as far as the appeal itself is
24 concerned, we don't perceive anything further that needs to be done except
25 the possibility that if there are germane cases decided before either this
Page 8
1 Tribunal or the Tribunal for the -- for Rwanda that attach themselves to
2 the issues, it may be that addenda will be sought to be filed simply to
3 bring the jurisprudence up-to-date, but that apart, it is unlikely that
4 there will be any further submissions in writing.
5 The appellant is obviously keen to have a date fixed for the
6 hearing of the appeal as soon as is practicable within the working
7 schedule of the Tribunal, and I will make certain submissions directly to
8 the Registrar after that because I am engaged in a case before the Rwanda
9 Tribunal and patently it would be better if we could come to an agreed
10 date rather than trying to fit in with one that is simply chosen out of
11 the -- out of the ether or out of the blue.
12 As far as the appellant himself is concerned, I've spoken to him
13 this morning. He appears to me, and I've known him now for some
14 considerable period, to be in good spirits mentally. Physically he's in
15 good shape. Unlike me, he has lost five kilos in the last few months,
16 which is a matter of particular envy on my part. But he has been to the
17 dentist recently, last week, and he is suffering somewhat from that. He
18 has a prosthesis which is cracked in the upper jaw and he's having that
19 repaired, so he finds it rather difficult and painful to speak at the
20 moment. It was yesterday, in fact, not last week, as I'm reminded. And
21 therefore he would very much appreciate it if he did not have to
22 personally address the Court other than to say yes or no because he's
23 finding it difficult to speak fluently.
24 That apart, there are no further observations from the appellant's
25 side.
Page 9
1 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Morrison. I have
2 taken note of what you just said. We shall certainly try to fix a date,
3 having in mind, of course, the schedule of the Tribunal, of the Chambers,
4 and the obligations, personal obligations, that you have just indicated.
5 Having said that, let me thank you for the information that you have just
6 provided to me.
7 As for the status of this appeal and the appeals proceedings, I
8 note that the entirety of the written submissions are now here. They have
9 all been filed, as you have indicated, and that the Appeals Chamber will
10 therefore be in a position to state its view within the following months.
11 Do you have any other submissions to make, any of the parties?
12 Anything else that you wish to raise? Mr. Prosecutor?
13 MR. McKEON: Thank you, Your Honour. We agree that the briefing
14 is essentially completed. We do not anticipate seeking leave to file a
15 further response to the reply brief, although we have not completed our
16 review of the brief. We expect to do that this week.
17 If we will seek leave to file a further response, we will do it
18 before the end of this week, before the close of business on Friday. But
19 as I stand here today, I do not anticipate that we will be filing such a
20 request.
21 That's all, Your Honour.
22 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.
23 Mr. Morrison, anything else?
24 MR. MORRISON: Your Honour, no. I'm grateful for that indication
25 from my learned friend for the Prosecutor, but nothing else arises at this
Page 10
1 stage. Thank you.
2 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Insofar as there are no other
3 issues to raise or discuss, the present Status Conference can be
4 adjourned.
5 The Court stands adjourned.
6 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned
7 at 2.41 p.m.
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25