Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 23

1 Wednesday, 28 June 2006

2 [Open session]

3 [Status Conference]

4 [The accused entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 5.36 p.m.

6 JUDGE MERON: Good afternoon. Madam Registrar, will you please

7 call the case.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. This is the case

9 number IT-99-36-A, the Prosecutor versus Radoslav Brdjanin.

10 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

11 Mr. Brdjanin, I would like to make sure that you can understand

12 and hear the proceedings in a language that you are familiar with.

13 Mr. Brdjanin.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] [No interpretation].

15 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

16 JUDGE MERON: Microphone, Mr. Brdjanin, please.

17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Good afternoon to everyone. I can

18 follow in a language I can understand.

19 JUDGE MERON: [Previous translation continues] ... could I now

20 have -- please have the appearances for the parties.

21 The Prosecution.

22 MS. BRADY: Thank you, Your Honour. Helen Brady appearing on

23 behalf of the Prosecution, together with Katharina Margetts, and our case

24 manager Ms. Lourdes Galicia.

25 JUDGE MERON: Thank you, Ms. Brady.

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1 I understand that Mr. Ackerman, counsel for the Defence, is

2 supposed to be appearing by telephone. The Registrar, is Mr. Ackerman on

3 the line?

4 THE REGISTRAR: No, Your Honour.

5 JUDGE MERON: Would you please inform the Court whether the

6 Registry has had any contact with Mr. Ackerman today.

7 THE REGISTRAR: No, Your Honour. We did not have any contact with

8 Mr. Ackerman today.

9 JUDGE MERON: Could you kindly confirm for the record that the

10 order scheduling the Status Conference was sent to Mr. Ackerman?

11 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour. It's been sent to Mr. Ackerman.

12 JUDGE MERON: Thank you, Registrar.

13 Unfortunately, Mr. Ackerman's absence somewhat limits what we can

14 do today.

15 Mr. Brdjanin, it appears that your counsel is not on the line. I

16 want to give you the option of whether to proceed or not in light of

17 Mr. Ackerman's absence. If you decide to proceed, I will only ask you

18 questions about your mental or physical health. We will not discuss any

19 other issue relevant to the appeals in this case.

20 So I will ask you, Mr. Brdjanin, whether you wish to proceed, and

21 be asked about your mental and physical health; or would you prefer to

22 adjourn this Status Conference and reconvene it when Mr. Ackerman is

23 present or on the phone?

24 Before you answer, which channel am I supposed to be on?

25 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]

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1 JUDGE MERON: Number 4. Yeah.

2 You may proceed, Mr. Brdjanin.

3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] We may continue, Your Honour, as far

4 as I'm concerned.

5 JUDGE MERON: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Brdjanin. Let me then ask you

6 whether you have any concerns regarding your physical or mental

7 well-being.

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] As concerns my well-being, I have no

9 issues to raise. I can only say that it is as old as I am.

10 JUDGE MERON: Thank you, Mr. Brdjanin. You may be seated.

11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] May I inquire something about the

12 appeal itself?

13 JUDGE MERON: We are working on it, Mr. Brdjanin, and we will --

14 we will try to schedule the hearing as soon as we can. I can assure you

15 that we are working hard on your case.

16 Any other questions, Mr. Brdjanin?

17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I didn't have in mind the case in

18 its entirety. I just wanted to see whether I could be given the appeal in

19 my own language, in a language I can understand.

20 JUDGE MERON: I will check into the status of translations and we

21 will let you know where we are standing, we are on that. Okay?

22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.

23 JUDGE MERON: Thank you.

24 So, again, because of the situation that has arisen, I have

25 avoided going into any questions pertaining to the respective appeals.

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1 And I will not do that now.

2 We will wait and deal with other issues, namely the issues

3 pertaining to the appeals when the Defence counsel is with us.

4 Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we will be able to have a conference

5 dealing with these issues 120 days of our 1 March 2006 Status Conference.

6 I want to note for the record that the Appeals Chamber scheduled a

7 Status Conference within 120 days of the last Status Conference, and that

8 our inability today to let the parties raise all issues normally raised at

9 a Status Conference is due to the fact that Defence counsel did not appear

10 today, either in person or on the phone.

11 That said, I thank the Prosecution, and I thank Mr. Brdjanin for

12 their attendance today, and I call the proceedings to a close.

13 Thank you very much.

14 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 5.44 p.m.

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