Case: IT-98-29-T

IN TRIAL CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Alphons Orie, Presiding
Judge Amin El Mahdi
Judge Rafael Nieto Navia

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis

Decision of:
10 April 2003

THE PROSECUTOR
v.
STANISLAV GALIC

___________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Mark Ierace

Defence Counsel:

Ms. Mara Pilipovic
Mr. Stéphane Piletta-Zanin

TRIAL CHAMBER I, Section B ("the 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 ("the Tribunal");

BEING SEIZED OF the Defence Request filed on 3 April 2003 for Certification to Appeal against the Bureau’s Decision on Galić’s Application Pursuant to Rule 15(B) ("the Request"), whereby the Defence seeks a certification to appeal the Bureau’s Decision of 28 March 2003, on the grounds that (i) the Bureau is not the appropriate authority to deal with a request for disqualification and withdrawal of a judge, and (ii) the Bureau examined the matter de novo and should hence be considered to have acted as a first instance jurisdiction, against whose decisions a certification to appeal should be open;

NOTING the "Prosecutor’s Response to the Defence Request for Certification" filed on 8 April 2003 ("the Response"), where the Prosecution argues that the Trial Chamber has no authority to grant the certification requested and reminds that the Bureau previously found that its disqualification decisions were not subject to interlocutory appeal;

NOTING the Appeals Chamber’s "Decision on Appeal from Refusal of Application for Disqualification and Withdrawal of judge Orie" dated 13 March, whereby the Appeals Chamber referred the application to the Bureau ;

CONSIDERING that, according to the procedure of Rule 73(B), the competence to grant a certification to appeal would lie with the instance which rendered the decision;

CONSIDERING that the decision contested in the Request was rendered by the Bureau; that, consequently, the Trial Chamber is not competent to decide upon the Request;

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS

PURSUANT to Rule 73 (B) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence;

DECLARES that it is not competent to deal with the Request.

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

Dated this Tenth of April 2003
At The Hague,
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]