THIS BENCH of the Appeals 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 ("International Tribunal"),

BEING SEIZED of the "Request of the Defence Counsel for Zoran Kupreskic and Mirjan Kupreskic for the Leave to Appeal against the Decision of 11 November 1999 on the Motions for Provisional Release" filed on 18 November 1999 ("Request");

NOTING the oral decision of Trial Chamber II of 11 November 1999 denying the oral motion for provisional release of, inter alia, Zoran and Miran Kupreskic because no exceptional circumstances as provided for in Rule 65 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal ("Rules") were present;

NOTING that the Request submits that the Trial Chamber erred in finding no exceptional circumstances to exist because, in the view of the Appellants, "the illness of the mother of the accused and Mirjan Kupreskic’s son, together with the previously mentioned health problems of Zoran Kupreskic’s wife and problems of his son’s behaviour do not constitute normal or expected results of the detention, but rather the exceptional circumstances provided for by the Rule 65";

NOTING that the Prosecution did not file a response by the deadline of 28 November 1999 in accordance with Article 5 of the Practice Direction on Procedure for the Filing of Written Submissions in Appeal Proceedings before the International Tribunal ("Practice Direction");

CONSIDERING that there is no right to reply under Article 6 of the Practice Direction where no response is filed;

DECIDING, therefore, to proceed on the basis of the existing filing from the Appellants;

CONSIDERING that sub-Rule 65(D) of the Rules provides, inter alia, that any "decision rendered under this Rule shall be subject to appeal in cases where leave is granted by a bench of three Judges of the Appeals Chamber, upon good cause being shown";

CONSIDERING sub-Rule 116bis (A) which provides, inter alia, that "a decision rendered under Rule 65 … shall be heard expeditiously on the basis of the original record of the Trial Chamber …";

CONSIDERING that the medical documents relating to Marko Kupreskic, son of Mirjan Kupreskic, submitted to this Bench as part of the Request, were not provided to the Trial Chamber in support of the oral motion;

CONSIDERING, THEREFORE, that the medical documents should not be admitted as evidence on appeal;

CONSIDERING that sub-Rule 65(B) allows a Trial Chamber to order provisional release in exceptional circumstances where the cumulative criteria have also been fulfilled to its satisfaction;

CONSIDERING that the Appellants have failed to establish error on the part of the Trial Chamber in determining an absence of exceptional circumstances under sub-Rule 65(B);

FINDING, THEREFORE, that the Request has not shown good cause;

HEREBY REFUSES to grant leave AND DISMISSES the Request.

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

___________________________
Judge Wang
Presiding

Dated this first day of December 1999
At The Hague,
The Netherlands.