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:
17 January 2003

 

PROSECUTOR
v.
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

_________________________________________________

ORDER ON THREE REQUESTS FROM THE AMICI CURIAE FOR VARIATION OF TIME LIMITS

_________________________________________________

 

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
Prof. 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 three requests from the amici curiae for variation of time limits pursuant to Rule 127 filed on 16 January 2003, as follows:

  1. "Amici Curiae’s Request for Variation of Time Limits Pursuant to Rule 127 for Additional Time to Respond to ‘Prosecution’s Motion for the Admission of Transcripts in Lieu of Viva Voce Testimony Pursuant to Rule 92 bis (D)’ filed on 10th January 2003" ("92 bis(D) Request");
  2. "Amici Curiae’s Request for Variation of Time Limits Pursuant to Rule 127 for Additional Time to Respond to ‘Prosecution’s Motion for the Admission of Written Statements in Lieu of Viva Voce Testimony Pursuant to Rule 92 bis’ filed on 10th January 2003" ("92 bis(A) Request"); and
  3. "Amici Curiae’s Request for Additional Time to Respond to the ‘Prosecution Motion for Judicial Notice of Adjudicated Facts’ filed on 12th December" ("Judicial Notice Request");

NOTING that the 92 bis(D) Request and Rule 92 bis(A) Request both seek a variation of the time limit set by Rule 92 bis (E), which reads as follows:

(E) Subject to Rule 127 or any order to the contrary, a party seeking to adduce a written statement or transcript shall give fourteen days notice to the opposing party, who may within seven days object. The Trial Chamber shall decide, after hearing the parties, whether to admit the statement or transcript in whole or in part and whether to require the witness to appear for cross-examination.

NOTING that the amici seeks an extension of 14 days from 16 January for the 92 bis(A) Request, and 14 days from the date of disclosure by the Prosecution of the exhibits the Prosecution seeks to admit with the transcripts, in its 92 bis(D) Request,

NOTING the arguments of the amici that Rule 92 bis (E) is intended to deal with "a written statement or transcript" and that the current applications concern 64 written statements and 11 transcripts, requiring careful revision and consideration and that, in respect of the 92 bis(D) Request, the Prosecution has not yet disclosed the exhibits it seeks to have admitted along with the transcripts to the amici or the accused,1

NOTING FURTHER that the amici seek 21 days from 16 January, in which to respond to the judicial notice application by the Prosecution of 12 December 2002, on the basis of the number of facts it seeks to have admitted by judicial notice and the importance of the issues at stake,

CONSIDERING that the wording of Rule 92 bis (E) clearly anticipates the submission of a single transcript or statement under a timetable allowing the parties time to respond and the Chamber adequate time to consider the application before a witness is called, whilst that the current Prosecution applications deal with 12 transcripts and 64 witness statements without any indication of the time at which such witnesses would (if its applications are unsuccessful) be called to give evidence,

CONSIDERING that the parties should be given a reasonable amount of time in which to respond adequately to the voluminous material served by the Prosecution,

CONSIDERING that Rule 127 (A) provides that a Trial Chamber may, on good cause being shown, enlarge or reduce any time prescribed under the Rules, and that, for the reasons set out above, the amici have shown good cause with respect to all the Requests,

PURSUANT TO Rule 127 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence

HEREBY ORDERS as follows:

  1. the amici shall be granted until 30 January 2003 to respond to the 92 bis(A) Request;
  2. the amici shall be granted 14 days to respond to the 92 bis(D) Request, which shall run from the date on which the Prosecution discloses all exhibits it seeks to have admitted with the transcripts, and the Prosecution will notify the Trial Chamber of the date of such disclosure;
  3. the amici shall be granted until 6 February 2003 to respond to the Judicial Notice Request; and
  4. these orders shall extend to the accused should he decide to respond to the Prosecution Motions in writing.

 

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

__________________
Richard May
Presiding

Dated this seventeenth day of January 2003
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]


1 - It is noted in the Prosecution Motion that it would file an annex to its Motion containing the exhibits relevant to the transcripts within 14 days of the date of its Motion (filed on 10 January 2003).