Case No. IT-02-54-T

IN TRIAL CHAMBER III

Before:
Judge Patrick Robinson, Presiding
Judge O-Gon Kwon
Judge Iain Bonomy

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis

Decision:
19 July 2004

PROSECUTOR

v.

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

_______________________________________

FINAL DECISION ON ADMISSIBILITY OF INTERCEPTED COMMUNICATIONS TENDERED THROUGH WITNESS HRVOJE SARINIC

_______________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Ms. Carla Del Ponte
Mr. Geoffrey Nice
Mr. Dermot Groome
Ms. Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff

Amici Curiae:

Mr. Steven Kay, QC
Prof. Timothy L.H. McCormack
Ms. Gillian Higgins

The Accused:

Mr. Slobodan Milosevic

 

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"),

NOTING the following:

  1. the testimony of Witness Hrvoje Sarinic before the Trial Chamber on 21-22 January 2004, during which certain intercepted communications ("intercepts") were tendered as evidence;
  2. "Decision on Notification of the Completion of Prosecution Case and Motion for the Admission of Evidence in Written Form", issued 25 February 2004, confirming that certain intercepts had been authenticated by the witness; and
  3. "Order on Prosecution Request for Clarification of Trial Chamber’s ‘Decision on Notification of the Completion of the Prosecution Case and Motion for the Admission of Evidence in Written Form’ dated 25 February 2004", issued 11 March 2004, holding that exhibit 641, tabs 9, 14, 16, and 19 ("Sarinic intercepts") were admissible in accordance with the Trial Chamber’s "Preliminary Decision on the Admissibility of Intercepted Communications", issued 16 December 2003, and admitting these intercepts into evidence on a prima facie basis subject to a determination as to their reliability,

CONSIDERING the "Final Decision on the Admissibility of Intercepted Communications", issued 14 June 2004, in particular the report of experts J.P. French and Associates regarding the authenticity of certain intercepts submitted by the Prosecution,

CONSIDERING that the Sarinic intercepts are relevant,

PURSUANT to Rules 54, 89, and 95 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal,

HEREBY ADMITS INTO EVIDENCE the Sarinic intercepts.

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

____________
Judge Robinson
Presiding

Dated this nineteenth day of July 2004
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]