Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 2500

1 Monday, 18 March 2002

2 [Open session]

3 --- Upon commencing at 10.00 a.m.

4 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Nice, the accused is not in Court. The Chamber

5 has received information from the Detention Unit that he is ill. He's

6 been seen by the doctor. He has the flu and will be off between three and

7 seven days. Now, we will, of course, hear from you, Mr. Tapuskovic, but

8 it would appear that there's nothing really we can do in his absence,

9 since he is defending himself, beyond adjourning the matter for three

10 days, which would be Thursday morning. We shall ask for a report from the

11 doctor on Wednesday, and if he's fit to come, we'll sit again on Thursday;

12 if not, we'll let everybody know.

13 MR. NICE: I can't think of anything practical that we can do.

14 I had informed your staff shortly before we sat there was one

15 outstanding issue concerning a witness in respect of whom I have to serve

16 an application under 92 bis and in respect of whom I will only be able to

17 call the witness once such an application has been made and rejected. The

18 problem with that is that, looking at the terms of 92 bis, subparagraph

19 (E), it appears that the Chamber can only make its decision after hearing

20 parties to such an application. The amici are not a party for these

21 purposes, and therefore, eager though I am to accelerate the process in

22 respect of this particular witness - get the application on, get it

23 objected to, if it's going to be objected to, in order that I can call him

24 as a witness - I don't see that I can even deal with that in the absence

25 of the accused.

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1 JUDGE MAY: It sounds not, but at least you can serve the

2 statement so we can have a look at it.

3 MR. NICE: Yes. I'll certainly do that today.

4 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Unless there are any other

5 matters -- Mr. Tapuskovic, if there's anything you want to raise.

6 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I can only agree

7 with what the Presiding Judge has said. Everything depends on the medical

8 report on his health condition and when he can come to the courtroom

9 again. In his absence, there is nothing we can discuss, including what

10 Mr. Nice has just raised. So all we can do is wait for the medical report

11 and see when he will be able to come to the courtroom again. Thank you.

12 JUDGE MAY: Thank you. Very well. We'll adjourn until we have

13 the medical report on Thursday, if possible.

14 MR. NICE: Your Honour, I'm just reminded of one thing. As to

15 outstanding issues, possibly the Chamber has not overlooked but put on one

16 side, I think, the dossiers variously described as village dossiers but

17 really location binders have been with the Chamber for some time.

18 JUDGE MAY: Yes.

19 MR. NICE: I think there's also outstanding submissions in respect

20 of the scope of cross-examination, but it may be that the Chamber was

21 going to call on the parties, in particular the accused, to deal with that

22 by oral submissions to supplement what's in writing.

23 I don't believe there's anything else outstanding. If there are

24 any documents, of course, that the Chamber needs to assist it in making

25 decisions or progressing the case, we can always provide those because we

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1 can provide them pursuant to an order, and we can provide them to all

2 parties. I have in mind things like the binders for particular

3 locations. If the Chamber wanted any more of them, we can provide those.

4 JUDGE MAY: Thank you. There is one other matter, which is the

5 facilities for the Defence, which we have to deal with. There's been a

6 submission, and we're waiting for the Registry response.

7 Yes. Thank you. We'll rise.

8 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 10.07 a.m.,

9 to be reconvened on Thursday, the 21st day

10 of March, 2002, at 9.30 a.m.

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