Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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 1                           Tuesday, 28 October 2008

 2                           [Status Conference]

 3                           [Open session]

 4                           [The accused entered court]

 5                           --- Upon commencing at 8.59 a.m.

 6             THE REGISTRAR:  This is the case IT-95-5/18-PT, The Prosecutor

 7     versus Radovan Karadzic.

 8             JUDGE BONOMY:  Good morning, Mr. Karadzic.  I note that you

 9     appear again without counsel.  Can you please confirm to me that you

10     continue to represent yourself.

11             THE ACCUSED:  [Microphone not activated]

12             THE INTERPRETER:  Microphone, please.

13             JUDGE BONOMY:  Thank you.

14             This Status Conference was arranged when the process of

15     presenting a motion to amend the indictment was likely to be completed.

16     The motion was filed on the 22nd of September.

17             I understand that you received the translation yesterday, the

18     27th of October, and it's at that stage that the Court becomes seized of

19     the matter.  I wish to, first of all, clarify certain things from the

20     Prosecution point of view before I turn to you for any comments you wish

21     to make on the state of play now that that motion is translated into your

22     language.

23             Mr. Tieger, can you explain to me what supporting material for

24     the motion and the proposed amended indictment, if any, remains unserved

25     or unintimated to the accused.

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 1             MR. TIEGER:  Your Honour, as a general matter, the answer is

 2     none.  I understand, however, there may be a few, that is, a handful of

 3     translation, that have not been provided; and there may also be an issue

 4     with some of the B/C/S audios that I would need to check often.  My

 5     understanding previously was that all disclosure had a been provided.  I

 6     will attend to that immediately.

 7             JUDGE BONOMY:  B/C/S audios are material in his language.  If

 8     they have been disclosed in that form, then they've been disclosed in

 9     terms of the Rules.  I'm more concerned about documents you say are

10     untranslated.  Can you clarify the position in regard to them.

11             MR. TIEGER:  If the Court will give me just a moment, Your

12     Honour.

13             The best clarification I can provide at this point is that there

14     are no more than four or five, as I understand it; and I will check

15     immediately on the status of those translations and make them a priority,

16     clearly.

17             JUDGE BONOMY:  Do you know whether these are lengthy documents or

18     simple documents?

19             MR. TIEGER:  I do not, at this time, Your Honour.

20             JUDGE BONOMY:  Rather an unsatisfactory state of affairs,

21     Mr. Tieger, at this stage, I have to say.  That is the sort of simple

22     information that this Trial Chamber is entitled to have before it

23     whenever it comes into court.  I am about to adjourn to enable you to

24     check the position, and we'll resume when you're able to tell the clerk

25     that that has been done.

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 1                            --- Break taken at 9.04 a.m.

 2                            --- On resuming at 9.10 a.m.

 3             JUDGE BONOMY:  I gather you have the answer, Mr. Tieger.

 4             MR. TIEGER:  Yes, Your Honour.

 5             Four documents, comprising a total of 60 pages, and those can be

 6     provided, I'm told, by Thursday and -- well, Thursday is what I was told

 7     so I would say by Friday.

 8             JUDGE BONOMY:  Of this week?

 9             MR. TIEGER:  Yes.

10             JUDGE BONOMY:  All right.  Thank you.

11             Now, Mr. Karadzic, you've got the motion; you've got the proposed

12     indictment.  By the end of this week, you will have all the supporting

13     material, which is the basis for the indictment, according to the

14     Prosecution.  The next issue is the time for you to respond to this

15     motion, and the normal period to response for a motion of this kind is

16     14 days.

17             Now, do you have anything to say on that issue?

18             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Not for the moment.  I don't have

19     anything to say on that issue, but I must say that I'm not prepared for

20     this Status Conference.  Yesterday, towards the evening, I received

21     official information or instructions that this Status Conference would be

22     held; and in the media, I heard it on Friday the 24th, and then I

23     submitted a motion on that subject.

24             I also received the indictment yesterday; and, all in all, I have

25     not had time to even look at it because I had a visit and another matters

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 1     to attend to, so that have I nothing to offer up for today's Status

 2     Conference, because, quite simply, I'm not prepared for this conference.

 3     I had a lot of work to do, I still do not have a team, and so on and so

 4     forth.

 5             JUDGE BONOMY:  Well, I take some responsibility for the situation

 6     that led to you receiving formal notification, as you put it, in B/C/S of

 7     today's hearing only yesterday; however, I do know that you were aware of

 8     the hearing last week and that you did, in fact, make a submission on

 9     Friday about it.  You're also aware that I tried to take account of other

10     issues that face you at the moment; but, at the same time, this case has

11     to proceed and I'm trying to make an orderly arrangement for the progress

12     this case, taking into account the other commitments that you are faced

13     with at the moment, which are beyond your control, as I understand.

14             I'm giving you the opportunity, now that you are here, to

15     consider what you believe to be a reasonable period to respond.  In the

16     absence of a motion, then responses will be due in 14 days, and the Trial

17     Chamber will proceed to deal with the motion for amendment on that basis.

18             If you want to leave it that way, that's a matter for you, and we

19     can adjourn.

20             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I do believe that, even for that

21     response, I would have to seek counsel from my legal advisors, I just

22     have just one so far, and I hope that quite soon I will be able to set up

23     my team and will be prepared for Status Conference.

24             As far as speed of work is concerned, I think that in the 120

25     days that usually elapse, there is usually one Status Conference held

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 1     that at that period of time; whereas, so far we have four.

 2             JUDGE BONOMY:  So is that all you wish to say?

 3             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I wasn't even ready to say that

 4     today.  I quite simply stated that I'm not prepared for today's Status

 5     Conference.

 6             JUDGE BONOMY:  Well, as matters stand, then, from the moment that

 7     you receive in B/C/S the supporting material for the motion to amend the

 8     indictment, you will have 14 days to respond to that.

 9             The only other matter that I have in mind to deal with is fixing

10     the next Status Conference.

11             Now, Mr. Tieger, before I do that, do you have any other matter

12     to raise?

13             MR. TIEGER:  No, Your Honour.  Thank you.

14             JUDGE BONOMY:  There is one motion, I note, that certainly passed

15     through my hands yesterday which is for judicial notice of adjudicated

16     facts.  I assume that in the same way as you consented to postponement of

17     the motions, the preliminary motions, when the accused sought that a

18     decision that he need not respond until the question of the indictment

19     had been resolved, that would also be your position in relation to the

20     motion for judicial notice of adjudicated facts.

21             MR. TIEGER:  That's fine, Your Honour, yes.

22             JUDGE BONOMY:  So there are these two issues, Mr. Karadzic.  You

23     requested that you need not submit preliminary motions until after the

24     whole issue of indictment was resolved and the Trial Chamber agreed to

25     that.  The same is the position in relation to the motion which has just

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 1     submitted, you may not have received it, which is for judicial notice of

 2     adjudicated facts.  You can take it that the Trial Chamber will not

 3     address that issue until the whole issue of the indictment has been

 4     resolved.

 5             Now, is there any other matter that you wish to raise before I

 6     fix the date for the next Status Conference?

 7             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I want to say that I've already

 8     traversed a certain path without my Defence team.  I have gone a certain

 9     way towards my Defence, but I will have -- be facing problems.  I don't

10     have the necessary resources, I don't have a Defence team, and with the

11     speed at which matters are progressing in these proceedings, I am afraid

12     that I will be in an even less equal position, and I'd like to you be

13     aware of that.

14             JUDGE BONOMY:  I'm astonished at your reference to speed.  I'm

15     extremely disappointed at the very slow rate at which this case is

16     proceeding.  You were in custody from, at the latest, the 21st of July.

17     I think you suggest it was even earlier than that, and you were here on

18     the 30th of July.  We're only now at the stage of considering a motion to

19     amend the indictment which the Prosecution hope will be the indictment on

20     which the trial progresses.

21             That's a period of three months, and we've gone virtually

22     nowhere.  Rest assured, that is not a fast rate of speed for any court to

23     progress.  It's your own choice, as you know very well, that you

24     represent yourself, and I'm afraid that carries particular problems which

25     you've been told about repeatedly.  You're willing to take on your own

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 1     shoulders, and that is a matter for you at this stage.

 2             So, in these circumstances, we will adjourn now and the next

 3     Status Conference is likely to be - there will be a written order

 4     confirming it, but you can put it in your diary - it is likely to be on

 5     Tuesday, the 20th of January.

 6                           --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned

 7                           at 9.19 a.m.

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