Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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1 Thursday, 7 July 2005

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 2.16 p.m.

6 JUDGE MUMBA: Good afternoon.

7 Madam Registrar, please call the case.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Case number IT-98-

9 29-A, the Prosecutor versus Stanislav Galic.

10 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you.

11 May I call for appearances, please.

12 The appellant.

13 MS. PILIPOVIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. On

14 behalf of General Galic, Mara Pilipovic, lead counsel, and Stephane

15 Piletta-Zanin, co-counsel. Thank you.

16 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you.

17 The Prosecution.

18 MR. WIRTH: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Steffen Wirth

19 appearing for the Prosecution and with Miss Helen Brady, and our case

20 manager today is Miss Victoria McCreath.

21 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. Today's proceedings, a Status

22 Conference, which is actually the fourth, the last one having been held on

23 the 11th of March this year. And the purpose of our status conference, as

24 usual, under Rule 65 bis, is that for persons who are in detention pending

25 appeal, such as the appellant is, awaiting his appeal, he should be

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1 afforded an opportunity to appear before the Court to express any concerns

2 he may have regarding his appeal or detention conditions and also to be

3 updated with respect to the status of the case.

4 So having said that, I will ask the appellant first, Mr. Galic,

5 whether he has anything he wishes to state and whether there are any

6 concerns regarding his conditions of detention.

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

8 First of all, let me take this opportunity to thank the Tribunal and the

9 Court for the fact that they allowed me to leave because of my sister. I

10 do have a number of questions, but I would especially like to thank the

11 Trial Chamber for this decision.

12 Secondly, there's nothing much to say about my health except

13 that on the 16th of May I visited a neurologist, and he said to me that in

14 as far as my spinal cord injury in the course of my rest was concerned,

15 that neither surgery nor any medication can help me. All I can do is

16 accept the fact that I'll have to suffer. I must say that I found it

17 rather difficult to cope for a while afterwards.

18 However, two days ago I was referred for treatment, special

19 spinal treatment, and I have to say that it does seem to me that it is

20 rather promising. So I'm hopeful, especially because after that bleak

21 prognosis that I was given back in May, this represents a ray of hope.

22 This is all the latest news since the last Status Conference, Your Honour.

23 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you. On behalf of the Appeals Chamber, I

24 wish to express grateful thanks to the authorities at the Detention Unit

25 for affording the appellant all these opportunities and possibilities to

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1 look after his health, and I'm glad to know that the latest treatment is

2 promising, and hopefully that will lead to better health for the appellant.

3 I now wish to look at the status of the case. So far, of the

4 four motions that the Appeal Chamber has had on additional evidence, the

5 decisions have already been granted for the first and third Rule 115

6 motion. And for the fourth Rule 115 motion, the Appeals Chamber is still

7 considering it. It may be issued in due course.

8 The second one was already dealt with.

9 There is also the Prosecution's request for leave to file a

10 consolidated further response to Defence replies concerning the third and

11 fourth Rule 115 motions, which are still pending.

12 I would like to find out from the parties whether there is

13 anything they wish to raise. I will begin with the appellant's counsel.

14 MR. PILETTA-ZANIN: [Interpretation] Yes, possibly, Madam

15 President. The Defence had the opportunity to discuss a certain number of

16 issues with General Galic this morning in order to try and prepare for the

17 defence of the accused as well as possible. And so this morning we've

18 developed a certain number of points, especially with regard to chronology.

19 Could the Trial Chamber let us know whether -- I mean, if at all possible -

20 - approximately at what point in time you believe that this case will be

21 dealt with by the Trial Chamber.

22 JUDGE MUMBA: I take it you mean when the appeal will be set for

23 hearing by the Appeals Chamber.

24 MR. PILETTA-ZANIN: [Interpretation] Precisely. That's what I've

25 just said, Madam Chair. Yeah.

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1 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. It is not possible to give a date right now

2 because this appeal is actually on the queue together with other appeals

3 which were filed before the Galic appeal before the Appeals Chamber. So

4 the Appeals Chamber tries as much as possible to follow the sequence of the

5 appeals before it.

6 And also, as you know, the same Appeals Chamber has appeals from

7 the International Tribunal for Rwanda, so it's quite a long list on the

8 case list for the Appeals Chamber. So as much as possible, the Appeals

9 Chamber does try to list for hearing appeals as quickly as they can, but

10 the workload is such that it's not possible at the moment to be able to say

11 when the Appeals Chamber thinks the hearing can be set for this particular

12 appeal. Otherwise, that would be kept into momentum on the cause list

13 before the Appeals Chamber.

14 I would like to find out whether the respondents, the

15 Prosecutor's party has anything to raise.

16 MR. WIRTH: Your Honour, we have nothing to raise. Thank you

17 very much.

18 JUDGE MUMBA: And in addition to what I've just said about the

19 workload, looking at the progress of the case or the procedural history,

20 quite a lot has been happening in this case. And as soon as the final

21 motion for additional evidence is dealt with, steps will be taken, I'm

22 sure, for the Appeals Chamber to set dates for the hearing of this

23 particular appeal.

24 Any other matter from the appellant's side?

25 MR. PILETTA-ZANIN: [Interpretation] Nothing, Madam President.

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1 Thank you.

2 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you very much.

3 I just want to address the appellant that as his lawyers have

4 said, that they've been discussing the preparation of the final solutions

5 for this appeal and are anxious to find out the date. I just want to

6 assure Mr. Galic that everything is being done. As soon as the other

7 appeals have come off the list, this particular appeal will be scheduled

8 for hearing. If not towards the end of this year but at least early next

9 year.

10 There being no other matters to deal with, I'll adjourn the

11 hearing until the next Status Conference.

12 The Court will rise.

13 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at

14 2.25 p.m.

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