Case No.: IT-02-54-T

IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Richard May, Presiding
Judge Patrick Robinson
Judge O-Gon Kwon

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis

Order of:
6 May 2003

PROSECUTOR
v.
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

________________________________________________

DECISION ON TWO PROSECUTION REQUESTS FOR CERTIFICATION OF APPEAL AGAINST DECISIONS OF THE TRIAL CHAMBER

_________________________________________________

 

The Office of the Prosecutor

Ms. Carla Del Ponte
Mr. Geoffrey Nice
Mr. Dermot Groome

The Accused

Slobodan Milosevic

Amici Curiae

Mr. Steven Kay, QC
Mr. Branislav Tapuskovic
Mr. Timothy L.H. McCormack

THIS TRIAL 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 SEISED OF two Motions entitled "Prosecution’s Request for Certification Under Rule 73 (B)", one filed on 22 April 2003 and the other on 23 April 2003 ("Request"), in which the Prosecution requests the Trial Chamber to certify certain issues for appeal pursuant to Rule 73(B), as follows:

  1. With respect to the Trial Chamber’s "Decision on Prosecution Motion for Judicial Notice of Adjudicated Facts" issued on 10 April 2003, the Prosecution seeks certification on the basis that the Chamber’s decision not to take judicial notice of more than half the adjudicated facts proposed by the Prosecution will significantly affect the efficient and expeditious conduct of the proceedings; taking judicial notice of the facts rejected by the Chamber would pose no prejudice to the right of the Accused to a fair trial; Trial Chamber I recently came to a different conclusion to that of this Chamber, and the issue would benefit from resolution by the Appeals Chamber; and
  2. With respect to the Trial Chamber’s "Decision on Prosecution Motion for the Admission of Evidence-in-Chief of its Witnesses in Writing" issued on 16 April 2003, the Prosecution seeks certification on the basis that the Chamber’s decision not to accept written statements of witnesses as evidence-in-chief could significantly affect the efficient and expeditious conduct of the proceedings in this case; a dissenting opinion by Judge Kwon gives rise to a discordance in the views expressed by the Trial Chamber, and such a procedure will save considerable time and not prejudice the right of the Accused to a fair trial,

HAVING CONSIDERED the Prosecution submissions in its Request,

NOTING that Rule 73 (B) requires two criteria to be satisfied before the Trial Chamber can exercise its discretion to certify a decision for interlocutory appeal: (1) that the issue would significantly affect the fair and expeditious conduct of the proceedings or outcome of the trial, and (2) an immediate resolution of the issue may, in the opinion of the Trial Chamber, materially advance the proceedings,1

CONSIDERING that, in respect of both applications, the Trial Chamber is satisfied that the cumulative requirements under Rule 73 (B) have been satisfied,

PURSUANT TO Rule 73(B) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal

HEREBY GRANTS BOTH REQUESTS FOR CERTIFICATION ON APPEAL.

 

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

__________________
Richard May
Presiding

Dated this sixth day of May 2003
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]


1. See Prosecutor v. Brdjanin and Talic, "Decision on Radislav Brdanin’s Motion for the Issuance of Rule 73(B) Certification Regarding the Chamber’s Rule 70 Confidential Decision", 23 May 2002, in which it is stated – as noted by the Prosecution in its Request – that these two conditions are cumulative and constitute an exception to the principle that decisions on all motions are without interlocutory appeal.