Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 4101

 1                           Tuesday, 9 March 2010

 2                           [Open session]

 3                           [The accused entered court]

 4                           --- Upon commencing at 2.24 p.m.

 5             JUDGE ORIE:  Good afternoon, to everyone in and just around the

 6     courtroom assisting us.

 7             Madam Registrar, would you please call the case.

 8             THE REGISTRAR:  Good afternoon, Your Honours.  Good afternoon

 9     everyone in and around the courtroom.  This is the case IT-03-69-T, the

10     Prosecutor versus Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic.

11             JUDGE ORIE:  Thank you, Madam Registrar.  For the continuation of

12     the cross-examination of the witness, we move into closed session.

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25                           [Open session]

Page 4145

 1             THE REGISTRAR:  We are in open session, Your Honours.

 2             JUDGE ORIE:  Thank you, Madam Registrar.

 3             Are there any procedural matters to be raised?  We dealt with

 4     most of them quite recently.

 5             Mr. Hoffmann.

 6             MR. HOFFMANN:  No, thank you, Your Honour.

 7             JUDGE ORIE:  Then I see that the Defence is also -- remains

 8     seated, both Defence teams, therefore if there are no further procedural

 9     issues we will adjourn.  And as explained earlier, and also the reasons

10     why we will not have any hearings next week, then there is the decision

11     of the Chamber on the motion for an adjournment which keeps us out of

12     court for a couple of weeks, but early April we have no court schedule

13     yet, so I can't give you the precise date on which we will resume.  The

14     parties will be informed about it as soon as possible.  That's, of

15     course, the first week after the weeks the Chamber indicated we would not

16     sit, but whether that would be a Monday, Tuesday, or any other days of

17     that week is still uncertain.

18             Therefore, adjournment will be sine die, without a day set.

19             Any other matters at this moment?

20             Mr. Knoops.

21             MR. KNOOPS:  Your Honour, if I may ask the Court if the Court

22     could give us an indication when it would decide on the motion for filing

23     the questions with Dr. Eekhof in light of our provisional release

24     application.

25             JUDGE ORIE:  Yes, I think we received the new questions late

Page 4146

 1     yesterday afternoon, and since all the judges were busy with other

 2     matters this morning, we have not found time yet.

 3             If there would be -- of course, the first is the Chamber will

 4     look at the questions, see whether these questions are appropriately put

 5     to the Dr. Eekhof or whether the Chamber itself will rephrase one or more

 6     of these questions, then we have to wait for the answer of Dr. Eekhof.

 7     And once we've received the answers, we will have to decide whether we

 8     want to have any further information from Dr. Eekhof in a hearing, and

 9     this, of course, all to prepare a decision on provisional release.

10             I can't give you at this moment any further indications apart

11     from that the Chamber is aware of the urgency of the matter, and the

12     Chamber will not lose unnecessarily time to decide the matter.

13             MR. KNOOPS:  Thank you, Your Honour.

14             JUDGE ORIE:  Mr. Bakrac.

15             MR. BAKRAC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, if you will allow me a

16     few words.  As you know, we have submitted a request of provisional

17     release of Mr. Simatovic with the appropriate guarantees provided by the

18     Government of the Republic of Serbia.  I believe and I still trust that

19     we have very good a collegiate relations with the OTP, but I would now

20     ask the OTP to just, if they can, speed up with their reply to our

21     request, and I am not addressing the Trial Chamber with the request to

22     actually issue an order to that effect to the OTP, but, rather, I am

23     appealing to the OTP to request that they provide their answer as soon as

24     they can.  Thank you.

25             JUDGE ORIE:  Yes, before we even considering an order, we will

Page 4147

 1     first hear what the Prosecution has to offer in respect of timing of

 2     their response.

 3             Mr. Hoffmann.

 4             MR. HOFFMANN:  Your Honours, as the parties have been informed,

 5     Mr. Groome at that point in time is on official business, but he returns

 6     tomorrow.  We have been working on the draft, and we intend to file it by

 7     the end of the week.  So within a week from the official filing.

 8             I would like to add if the Chamber further considers to limit

 9     that time further, that in our view the motions of -- hasn't been filed

10     urgent.  It was known since the 19th of February that there would be an

11     adjournment, and the filing was only submitted on last Friday, late

12     afternoon, while we were all sitting in court.  Since then we have been

13     again in court for two days, which is partly why we are still considering

14     the response on the motion.

15             JUDGE ORIE:  Yes.

16             MR. HOFFMANN:  Just --

17             MR. BAKRAC: [Interpretation] Your Honour --

18             JUDGE ORIE:  Mr. Groome informed Chamber staff that we could

19     expect a response to be filed tomorrow.  So therefore -- yes, Mr. Bakrac.

20             MR. BAKRAC: [Interpretation] I apologise, Your Honour, but I feel

21     bound to reply to Mr. Hoffmann.  He is absolutely correct, and it is this

22     Defence team's error.  We were not sure as to what was going to happen

23     with the 18th and 19th, whether we were going to work on those days or

24     not, and, of course, we could have submitted our request to be effective

25     as of the moment of the delay, and on.  And of course it was an error on

Page 4148

 1     our part, but I appealed to the Trial Chamber and the OTP to have

 2     understanding for our position, because the whole point of this delay of

 3     the proceedings was to allow us to have some additional time to work with

 4     our accused because he is the most appropriate person who can assist us

 5     in the preparation of his Defence, and I do acknowledge that it was our

 6     mistake in filing this just last Friday, but that was simply because we

 7     weren't counting on this time as being counted, the delayed time as being

 8     counted from now onwards and not from after the 19th.  And we apologise

 9     for filing our request too late, and we would very much appreciate if the

10     Prosecution could reply by tomorrow.

11             I thank you.

12             JUDGE ORIE:  Mr. Hoffmann.

13             MR. HOFFMANN:  Your Honours, I certainly stand corrected.  If

14     that information was provided that we will file tomorrow, we will do so

15     by the end of tomorrow.

16             JUDGE ORIE:  Yes, I rely on the very specific information in

17     relation to this; whereas it seems that your announcement that you would

18     reply by Friday was a bit on the basis that you would wait for Mr. Groome

19     to return and then to further discuss the matter.

20                           [Trial Chamber confers]

21             JUDGE ORIE:  In order to give both parties a bit, the Chamber

22     would appreciate to receive the response by tomorrow close of business,

23     but orders it to be filed not later than Thursday, the 11th, at noon,

24     which gives you at least a night and a morning to further have a

25     better -- with Mr. Groome, Mr. Hoffmann, if there is any need.

Page 4149

 1             Mr. Knoops.

 2             MR. KNOOPS:  Your Honour, it is our understanding that

 3     Prosecution still intends to file questions for Dr. Eekhof as well if the

 4     Court grants our request.

 5             JUDGE ORIE:  We haven't seen anything.

 6             Mr. Hoffmann.

 7             MR. HOFFMANN:  Yes, I was about to raise earlier on and to

 8     indicate to the parties and the Chambers that we have prepared that, and

 9     as soon as we get out of court we will file that and also provide the

10     courtesy copies.

11             JUDGE ORIE:  So that we can -- which allows us to consider all

12     the questions together.  And so that will be filed today?

13             MR. HOFFMANN:  Right after court, and we will make sure that we

14     send out courtesy copies directly.

15             JUDGE ORIE:  That's understood.  The Chamber appreciates the

16     flexibility shown by the parties in this respect.  I would say in this

17     respect, obviously, and primarily, the Prosecution.

18             Any other matter to be raised?

19             MR. KNOOPS:  Thank you, Your Honour, no.

20             JUDGE ORIE:  Nothing.

21             Then we adjourn, as I explained and announced earlier, sine die.

22                           --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at

23                           5.03 p.m. sine die.

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