Case No. IT-01-47-PT

IN TRIAL CHAMBER II

Before:
Judge Wolfgang Schomburg, Presiding
Judge Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba
Judge Carmel Agius

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis

Decision of:
1 August 2003

PROSECUTOR

v.

ENVER HADZIHASANOVIC
AMIR KUBURA

______________________________

DECISION ON REQUEST FOR LEAVE TO FILE AN AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF

______________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Ekkehard Withopf
Mr. David Re

Counsel for the Accused Hadzihasanovic and Kubura:

Ms. Edina Residovic and Mr. Stéphane Bourgon for Enver Hadzihasanovic
Mr. Fahrudin Ibrisimovic and Mr. Rodney Dixon for Amir Kubura

 

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 SEIZED of a Request1 for leave to file an amicus curiae brief in this case ("Request"), filed on 29 July 2003 on behalf of the Association of Defence Counsel of the International Tribunal ("ADC") by Mr. John Ackerman in his capacity as President of the ADC,

NOTING that the amicus curiae brief is filed in support of the "Joint Defence Request for Certification of the ‘Decision on Joint Defence Oral Motion for Reconsideration of "Decision on Urgent Motion for Ex Parte Oral Hearing on Allocation of Resources to the Defence and Consequences Thereof for the Rights of the Accused to a Fair Trial’" dated 18 July 2003", which was filed on 22 July 2003 ("Joint Defence Request for Certification"),

NOTING Rule 74 of the Rules of Procedure of Evidence ("Rules") which provides that:

A Chamber may, if it considers it desirable for the proper determination of the case, invite or grant leave to a State, organization or person to appear before it and make submissions on any issue specified by the Chamber

NOTING the Decision of this Chamber dated 25 July 2003 denying the Joint Defence Request for Certification ("Decision on the Joint Defence Request for Certification"),

CONSIDERING, therefore, that the Request for leave to file an amicus curiae brief in support of the Joint Defence Request for Certification is now moot, the Trial Chamber having issued its Decision on that motion four days before the Request was filed,

CONSIDERING FURTHER that the issue which forms the subject of the Request is related to the policy of the allocation of resources to the Defence in general and has already been declared inadmissible by this Trial Chamber on several occasions,2

CONSIDERING FURTHER that the ADC is not a party to these proceedings,

PURSUANT TO Rule 54 and Rule74 of the Rules,

HEREBY DISMISSES the Request for leave to file an amicus curiae brief as inadmissible.

 

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

________________
Judge Wolfgang Schomburg
Presiding

Dated this first day of August 2003
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]
1. The Request is accompanied by the amicus curiae brief itself.
2. See e.g Prosecutor v. Enver Hadzihasanovic et al, Case No. IT-01-47-PT, Decision on Joint Defence Oral Motion for Reconsideration of "Decision on Urgent Motion for Ex Parte Oral Hearing on Allocation of Resources to the Defence and Consequences Thereof for the Rights of the Accused to a Fair Trial", 18 July 2003; Prosecutor v. Enver Hadzihasanovic et al, Case No. IT-01-47-PT, Decision on "Joint Defence Request for Certification of the ‘Decision on Joint Defence Oral Motion for Reconsideration of "Decision on Urgent Motion for Ex Parte Oral Hearing on Allocation of Resources to the Defence and Consequences Thereof for the Rights of the Accused to a Fair Trial’" dated 18 July 2003", 25 July 2003.