1 Thursday, 8 April 2004

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 2.58 p.m.

6 JUDGE GUNEY: [Microphone not activated]

7 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for the Presiding Judge, please.

8 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Mr. Registrar, could you call the

9 case, please.

10 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. This is Case number

11 IT-02-60/1-A, the Prosecutor versus Momir Nikolic.

12 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Mr. Nikolic, are you able to follow

13 the proceedings?

14 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour, I am.

15 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] There's a minor technical problem.

16 Could you repeat your answer. Are you able to follow the proceedings?

17 Are you receiving the interpretation?

18 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Yes, I'm able to follow the

19 proceedings. I'm able to follow the proceedings in a language that I

20 understand.

21 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. You may sit down.

22 Could we have the appearances for the Prosecution, please.

23 MR. MARCUSSEN: Good afternoon, Your Honour. My name is

24 Mathias Marcussen, and today with me in Court is Ms. Susan Grogan, our

25 case manager. Thank you.

1 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Marcussen.

2 And could we have the appearances for the Defence, for

3 Mr. Nikolic's defence.

4 MR. LONDROVIC: [Interpretation] Good day, Your Honour. On behalf

5 of Mr. Nikolic, my name is Veselin Londrovic, lead counsel, and I'm

6 assisted by my co-counsel, Lindsay Virginia.

7 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.

8 With regard to the purpose of this Status Conference, pursuant to

9 Rule 65 bis (i) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence that govern the

10 Tribunal, a Status Conference must be held 120 days following the filing

11 of the notice of appeal, and then every 120 days, to give the person who

12 is appealing the possibility of raising issues that pertain thereto. In

13 this case, a notice of appeal was filed by Mr. Nikolic on the 30th of

14 December, 2003. This is, therefore, the first Status Conference held

15 within the framework of the appeal.

16 The purpose of the Status Conference is to allow the appellant to

17 raise issues that concern the conditions in the detention facility or that

18 concern his mental and physical health.

19 Mr. Nikolic, or defence counsel for Mr. Nikolic, is there anything

20 you would like to inform the Trial Chamber with regard to these matters?

21 MR. LONDROVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I have visited

22 Mr. Nikolic. I did so on the 5th of April. We discussed his health

23 condition and the conditions in the Detention Unit. As far as I am aware,

24 Mr. Nikolic's health is quite good. He doesn't have any important or

25 significant problems, as far as his health is concerned.

1 As far as the personnel in the Detention Unit is concerned,

2 they're treating Mr. Nikolic well, and as far as Mr. Nikolic's attitude in

3 relation with the personnel in the Detention Unit is concerned, everything

4 is fine, as far as I know. If Mr. Nikolic has anything else to add, he

5 could address the Court himself.

6 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Londrovic.

7 Mr. Nikolic, is there anything you would like to add to what

8 Defence counsel has just stated?

9 THE INTERPRETER: [Interpretation] Microphone for the accused,

10 please. His microphone is not switched on.

11 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] As I said, there is nothing in

12 particular that I would like to add as far as the conditions in the

13 Detention Unit are concerned. The conditions are what they are. I have

14 respect for those conditions and I have no objections to the way in which

15 the personnel of the Detention Unit treats me. And similarly, I hope that

16 the staff in the Detention Unit don't have any objections to raise with

17 regard to my behaviour in the Detention Unit. All I can add is that after

18 the sentence was handed down, I went through hell. That's how it is put

19 colloquially in my country. To a large extent, I was mostly helped by the

20 doctors who work in the Detention Unit, by the governor and his deputies,

21 by the personnel who work in the Detention Unit. Naturally, I don't feel

22 that good at the moment. My condition is not optimal. I think I need

23 some time to return to the state I was in before the sentence was handed

24 down, or to try to return to that state.

25 I could also add that, if it's of any importance, for a long time

1 after the sentence was handed down, I was quite simply not capable of

2 getting involved in the case, to the extent that it is necessary to do so

3 in order to help my Defence counsel to work on the appeal. So I think

4 that this is the state I was in initially. I wasn't able to do anything

5 or prepare for anything in a rational way in order to assist the

6 preparation of my appeal.

7 Naturally, the situation is different now. It's not as good as it

8 could be or should be. All I can say is that I'm no longer able to

9 cooperate, to work with my Defence counsel in a normal and rational way,

10 and in view of this fact, I'm not in a position to assist them as I ought

11 to be able to do. I hope you will understand what I'm saying. As far as

12 extending the deadline is concerned, I hope that you will help me in that

13 respect, and I hope that you will help me to assist my Defence counsel as

14 much as possible, to enable them to file an appeal, to work on appeal that

15 will be up to the necessary standards.

16 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for the Presiding Judge, please.

17 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Nikolic. You may sit

18 down now.

19 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Thank you.

20 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] I thank you for what you have said.

21 I have taken note of the concerns you have expressed. Apart from those

22 concerns, I would like to remind you that pursuant to Rule 44 and 48, that

23 relate to the detention facilities, you can at any point in time file a

24 complaint with the warden or with the registrar.

25 Having said that, I would like to inform you of some of your

1 obligations. The purpose of the Status Conference is to inform the

2 appellant of the status of the proceedings with regard to this subject.

3 The registry has informed the Trial Chamber that a version of the

4 judgement in B/C/S was provided to you on the 1st of April. I would like

5 to remind you, Mr. Nikolic, that filing of your Appeal Brief is expected

6 for the 11th of May, 2004, at the latest. That is 40 days after the date

7 on which you were provided with a B/C/S version of the judgement. The

8 date will then be the 11th of May, unless, as you have just requested,

9 your request to have the deadline extended, is granted. As there are no

10 written submissions from either of the parties, I have no other issues to

11 raise. I have no other questions for the parties at this point in time.

12 Nevertheless, I would like to ask whether either of the parties has any

13 comments to make or any issues that they would like to raise.

14 Mr. Marcussen.

15 MR. MARCUSSEN: Thank you, Your Honour. There's nothing on the

16 part of the Prosecution. Thanks.

17 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. Thank you,

18 Mr. Marcussen.

19 Mr. Londrovic.

20 MR. LONDROVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, at this moment, the

21 Defence has nothing else to say. I see that you have been informed about

22 our request for the extension of our appeal by the additional 14 days. In

23 our request, we have stated the reasons for which we are asking for this

24 extension, and we believe that your decision, when it's rendered, will be

25 rendered as soon as possible, because we need to know whether the deadline

1 is the 11th of May or whether we are going to be given the additional 14

2 days to prepare the appeal for Mr. Nikolic.

3 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. Thank you,

4 Mr. Londrovic.

5 I have taken note of what you have said, and since there are no

6 other issues to be raised and considered, I would like -- I am adjourning

7 this Status Conference.

8 Mr. Marcussen.

9 MR. MARCUSSEN: Sorry, Your Honour. Maybe just in an effort to

10 expedite the proceedings in this case, I'd like to mention that yesterday

11 the Prosecution met with counsel for Mr. Nikolic, and was put on notice of

12 the request for an extension of time. The Prosecution has not yet

13 received the written motion, but I believe it's indicated in the motion

14 that the Prosecution has no objection to the extension of 14 days in the

15 sense that we will not be prejudiced by those 14 days. So maybe instead

16 of us filing a written response, in the spirit of speeding up things, my

17 stating this on the record could be taken as a response to the motion.

18 Thank you.

19 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Marcussen. What you

20 have just said will be taken into consideration. This is going to assist

21 us with rendering our decision.

22 Is there anything else any of the parties would like to say?

23 If not, we can adjourn. It is so decided.

24 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at

25 3.16 p.m.