130111SE

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1 Friday, 11 January 2013

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellants entered court]

5 [The appellants Popovic and Beara not present]

6 --- Upon commencing at 9.33 a.m.

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Please call the case, Madam Registrar.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honour. This is case number

9 IT-05-88-A, the Prosecutor versus Popovic et al.

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: And may I have the appearances for the

11 Prosecution.

12 MR. SCHNEIDER: Good morning, Your Honour. Todd Schneider for

13 the Prosecution, along with Ms. Ingrid Elliott and Mr. Colin Nawrot.

14 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you. And for the Defence for Mr. Popovic.

15 MS. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour. On

16 behalf of Mr. Popovic, Ms. Mira Tapuskovic, co-counsel.

17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Just a minute. I noticed that he's not here but

18 a waiver has been submitted.

19 MS. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour. The procedure

20 of receiving his waiver is under way so that we can proceed without him.

21 I don't know whether the Registrar has received it. I see that they are

22 nodding. He couldn't attend for personal reasons because of something

23 that happened in his family and that's why he waived his right to appear

24 today in the courtroom.

25 JUDGE ROBINSON: And I take it you are fully briefed as to any

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1 issues that he might wish to raise today.

2 MS. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, certainly, Your Honour.

3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

4 For Mr. Beara.

5 MR. OSTOJIC: Good morning, Mr. President. John Ostojic on

6 behalf of Ljubisa Beara. Mr. Beara also is not present. We are in the

7 process of obtaining his waiver. I have spoken to him twice yesterday

8 and earlier in the week and he apologises for not being here, and his

9 waiver should be shortly forthcoming.

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: And I take it also that you are fully briefed as

11 to any issues that he might have wanted to raise.

12 MR. OSTOJIC: I am, Your Honour, yes.

13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

14 Mr. Nikolic.

15 MS. NIKOLIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour. On

16 behalf of Drago Nikolic, my name is Jelena Nikolic. Mr. Stephane Bourgon

17 is here and Marlene Yahya, who is our legal assistant.

18 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

19 And for Mr. Miletic?

20 MS. FAUVEAU: Good morning, Your Honour, Natacha Fauveau-Ivanovic

21 for Mr. Radivoje Miletic, together with Mr. Petrusic, co-counsel.

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Pandurevic.

23 MR. HAYNES: Good morning, Your Honour. Peter Haynes for

24 Pandurevic, together with Ms. Helena Tosic.

25 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Gvero.

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1 MR. KRGOVIC: Good morning, Your Honours. Dragan Krgovic

2 appearing for General Gvero.

3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, I'll start with a summary of the motions

4 before the Chamber. First, the Chamber is currently seized of a total of

5 four motions under Rule 115. These consist of two motions filed by

6 Mr. Popovic, his third and fourth motions pursuant to Rule 115, filed on

7 the 15th of August, 2011, and the 19th of September, 2011, respectively;

8 and two motions filed by Mr. Miletic, his first and second motions,

9 pursuant to Rule 115, filed on 30th March, 2012, and 7 May 2012

10 respectively. All responses and replies to these four motions have been

11 received by the Appeals Chamber. The motions are under consideration by

12 the Chamber.

13 The second item concerns Mr. Gvero's status as an appellant in

14 these proceedings, and I want to move to private session to discuss this.

15 [Private session]

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11 Page 43 redacted. Private session.

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14 [Open session]

15 THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, just for the record --

16 JUDGE ROBINSON: We are still in private session?

17 THE REGISTRAR: No, we just moved into open session.

18 JUDGE ROBINSON: We are in public session.

19 MR. OSTOJIC: Thank you, Mr. President. On behalf of Mr. Beara,

20 he has no issues to raise and I understand he is in relatively good

21 health. Thank you.

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

23 Mr. Nikolic.

24 THE APPELLANT NIKOLIC: [Interpretation] Mr. President, I am of

25 good health and there is nothing to raise.

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1 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

2 Mr. Miletic.

3 THE APPELLANT MILETIC: [Interpretation] Mr. President, there is

4 nothing in particular to raise.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Pandurevic.

6 THE APPELLANT PANDUREVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I am of

7 good health. Other than that, there are no problems.

8 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

9 May I ask counsel now whether there are any other matters that

10 they wish to raise. Yes.

11 MR. BOURGON: Good morning, Mr. President. There are indeed two

12 issues we would like to raise on behalf of our client, Mr. Nikolic, both

13 of which have to deal with the upcoming oral hearing in this case.

14 Based on information obtained in the last President's report

15 before the Security Council, it is our understanding that the appeals

16 hearing in this case is likely to be scheduled before the summer recess.

17 While we understand that the Appeals Chamber is most likely not in a

18 position to provide us with more information regarding the exact date of

19 the hearing, we nonetheless wish to take this opportunity to raise two

20 issues.

21 The first one being the notice required before the holding of the

22 oral hearing, and the second one regarding the fact that we are likely to

23 need the assistance of the Appeals Chamber in our dealings with OLAD.

24 Regarding the first issue, Mr. President, due to the duration of

25 the delay between the briefing of this appeal and the holding of the oral

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1 hearing, we anticipate that two full-time months' of work will be

2 required for us to prepare. In other words, we ask for the indulgence of

3 the Chamber in giving us a notice of a minimum of two months before the

4 oral hearing can take place.

5 With regards to the second issue, suffice it to say, at this

6 time, Mr. President, that we have exhausted all resources which have been

7 allocated to represent our client during this appeal. Disclosure keeps

8 pouring in. We are working still with our client, and a lot of

9 additional work will be required for preparation in terms of the oral

10 hearing coming up. We just wish to place on the record at this time that

11 we will be seizing the Registry with a request in this regard and wanted

12 to be sure that the Appeals Chamber was aware of this fact.

13 Thank you very much, Mr. President.

14 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Bourgon, I thank you for bringing both

15 matters to the attention of the Chamber.

16 Any other matters?

17 MR. OSTOJIC: Thank you, Mr. President. And just for the record,

18 we would like to join on that oral request and motion on behalf of

19 Mr. Beara.

20 JUDGE ROBINSON: You're also requesting the period of two months?

21 MR. OSTOJIC: I think it's reasonable or at least a reasonable

22 period of time. I think anywhere from six to eight weeks would be

23 reasonable, and I would join in that request, yes, Your Honour, on both

24 requests that was made.

25 JUDGE ROBINSON: The Chamber will give it consideration.

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1 MR. OSTOJIC: Thank you.

2 JUDGE ROBINSON: Any other issues to be raised by counsel?

3 MR. SCHNEIDER: Nothing for the Prosecution. Thank you,

4 Your Honour.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: The Status Conference is at an end. We are

6 adjourned.

7 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at

8 9.48 a.m.