Page 871

1 Wednesday, 3 May 2017

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellants entered court]

5 [The Appellant Pusic not present]

6 --- Upon commencing at 9.32 a.m.

7 JUDGE AGIUS: Okay, I see everybody here. Good morning,

8 everybody.

9 Madam Registrar, could you call the case, please.

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

11 IT-04-74-A, the Prosecutor versus Prlic et al.

12 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you. Before we continue, I'd like to make

13 sure that all the appellants are following or can follow the proceedings

14 in your own language or a language that you understand.

15 I'll start -- anyone who isn't, please. Are you -- Mr. Praljak,

16 you're okay? You are hearing -- following the proceedings. Yes, all

17 right.

18 Could I have appearances, starting with the Prosecution, please.

19 MS. HOULIHAN: Good morning, Mr. President. For the Prosecution,

20 Sarah Houlihan, senior appeals counsel; Laurel Baig; Mario Hainboeck; and

21 Janet Stewart.

22 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you. And appearances for the Defence -- but

23 before I call on you, Mr. Karnavas, I note that on the 19th of April, of

24 last month, counsel for Mr. Praljak indicated that they are not in a

25 position to attend today's Status Conference; and on the same day,

Page 872

1 Mr. Praljak himself filed a waiver in that regard. I also note that on

2 the 20th of April, 2017, counsel for Mr. Pusic requested to attend this

3 Status Conference via video-conference link from Sarajevo, Bosnia and

4 Herzegovina. Mr. Pusic has provided consent for the Status Conference to

5 be held in his absence and has not provided any objections to his

6 counsel's participation in this way.

7 So we go to the appearances now. For Mr. Prlic.

8 MR. KARNAVAS: Good morning, Mr. President. Good morning,

9 everyone in and around the courtroom. My name is Michael Karnavas for

10 Dr. Jadranko Prlic.

11 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

12 For Mr. Stojic.

13 MR. KHAN: Mr. President, good morning. In the absence of lead

14 counsel, Senka Nozica, Karim Khan for Bruno Stojic.

15 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you very much.

16 Mr. Praljak is not represented today.

17 Mr. Petkovic.

18 MR. LAZIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour. On behalf

19 of Milivoj Petkovic, counsel Davor Lazic.

20 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you very much.

21 Counsel for Mr. Coric.

22 MR. PLAVEC: [Interpretation] Good morning. Drazen Plavec,

23 co-counsel appearing on behalf of Mr. Coric; and our legal consultant,

24 Dragan Ivetic.

25 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

Page 873

1 Appearances for Mr. - did I check with Mr. Petkovic? Yes -

2 Mr. Pusic.

3 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreter's note: We can barely hear

4 Mr. Ibrisimovic.

5 JUDGE AGIUS: You have to speak louder.

6 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] [Via videolink] Good morning,

7 Your Honour. Mr. Ibrisimovic appearing on behalf of Mr. Pusic.

8 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreter's note: We can still barely hear

9 the sound.

10 JUDGE AGIUS: All right. The interpreters are informing me that

11 they can barely hear your voice, so I would kindly -- I did hear you but

12 they are having difficulties and it is very important that they can

13 follow exactly what you are saying. So if you could kindly repeat a

14 little bit louder.

15 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] [Via videolink] Good morning,

16 Your Honours. Mr. Ibrisimovic appearing on behalf of Mr. Pusic.

17 JUDGE AGIUS: Did the interpreters hear okay now?

18 THE INTERPRETER: No, Your Honour, it is still very poor.

19 JUDGE AGIUS: At this time, at this point, I didn't hear anything

20 at all.

21 Can you put the microphone near your mouth?

22 Yes, go ahead.

23 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] [Via videolink] Good morning,

24 Your Honour. Mr. Pusic is represented by Mr. Fahrudin Ibrisimovic,

25 attorney-at-law from Sarajevo.

Page 874

1 JUDGE AGIUS: I still didn't hear anything, but let's proceed. I

2 think it's a loose connection on the microphone or something like that.

3 Anyway ...

4 This Status Conference is called in accordance with Rule 65 bis

5 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. This rule requires a Status

6 Conference to be convened within 120 days after the last Status

7 Conference has been held for each appellant in the Tribunal's custody. A

8 Status Conference serves two main primary purposes: First, it allows the

9 appellants an opportunity to express concerns relating to their appeal or

10 detention conditions and for the Tribunal to inquire about the mental and

11 physical conditions of the detained persons; second, it provides an

12 opportunity to update the appellants with respect to the status of their

13 case as well as to inform the general public thereof.

14 I would now like to inquire into the status of the detention

15 conditions and health situations of each one of the appellants. If any

16 of the appellants wish this discussion to take place in a private session

17 or in closed session, kindly let me know, and I will provide accordingly.

18 Would anyone like to have the discussion held in closed session

19 or private session? I see no one requesting that, so we'll continue with

20 an open session.

21 Mr. Prlic, do you wish to raise any matters in relation to your

22 detention or to your health.

23 THE APPELLANT PRLIC: Good morning, Mr. President. I have no

24 information to share on this occasion.

25 JUDGE AGIUS: I thank you, Mr. Prlic.

Page 875

1 Mr. Stojic, same question.

2 THE APPELLANT STOJIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour.

3 Everything is fine. No problems to raise.

4 JUDGE AGIUS: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Stojic, and good morning to

5 you.

6 Mr. Praljak.

7 THE APPELLANT PRALJAK: [Interpretation] Mr. President, there are

8 no problems to report. Thank you.

9 JUDGE AGIUS: I thank you.

10 Mr. Petkovic.

11 THE APPELLANT PETKOVIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your

12 Honour. No problems. Thank you.

13 JUDGE AGIUS: Mr. Coric.

14 THE APPELLANT CORIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, good morning.

15 Nothing to raise. Thank you.

16 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

17 And Mr. Fahrudin.

18 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] [Via videolink] Yes,

19 Your Honour.

20 JUDGE AGIUS: Do you wish to raise anything?

21 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] [Via videolink] No, no.

22 JUDGE AGIUS: All right. Thank you.

23 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] [Via videolink] No,

24 Your Honour, there's nothing I would like to raise at this point.

25 JUDGE AGIUS: I will deal now with recent procedural history and

Page 876

1 I will be very concise, very short. I shall now turn to an update of the

2 case.

3 The appeal hearing in this case, as you know, took place between

4 the 20th and 28th of March. The Appeals Chamber will pronounce its

5 judgement by November. As of today, no specific date has been set and

6 the date for the judgement will be announced in due course. There have

7 been three public filings by the Appeals Chamber since the previous

8 Status Conference which was held, as you know, on 17 January. The first

9 filing happened on 1 March 2017, when the Appeals Chamber issued an

10 "Order for the Preparation of the Appeal Hearing." The second public

11 filing happened on 22 March 2017, when the Appeals Chamber issued a

12 "Invitation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, and the

13 Registrar," in relation to the recovery of funds owed by Mr. Praljak to

14 the Tribunal. And third the Scheduling Order for this Status Conference,

15 which was filed on 3 April 2017.

16 I also note that there is one public motion pending before the

17 Appeals Chamber. It was filed on 14 April 2017 by counsel for Radovan

18 Karadzic, and it is a motion for the issuance of public redacted versions

19 of two confidential and ex parte Rule 75 orders from the Prlic et al.

20 case.

21 This brings me to the last part of today's Status Conference and

22 I would like to ask the parties whether they have any other issues that

23 they would like to raise with me today.

24 I start with the Prosecution.

25 MS. HOULIHAN: Nothing from the Prosecution, Mr. President.

Page 877

1 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

2 Mr. Karnavas.

3 MR. KARNAVAS: Nothing, Mr. President.

4 JUDGE AGIUS: Mr. Khan.

5 MR. KHAN: Nothing on behalf of Bruno Stojic. Thank you so much.

6 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

7 Mr. Praljak? I see him indicating that he hasn't any issue.

8 Counsel for Mr. Petkovic.

9 MR. LAZIC: [Interpretation] Nothing to raise on behalf of

10 General Petkovic. Thank you.

11 JUDGE AGIUS: And counsel for Mr. Coric.

12 MR. PLAVEC: [Interpretation] There's nothing to raise,

13 Your Honour.

14 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you very much.

15 Since there are no other matters to be raised, I thank all the

16 parties for their attendance, and I adjourn these proceedings. Thank

17 you.

18 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned at

19 9.45 a.m.