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1 Tuesday, 16 October 2001
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The appellants entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 2.36 p.m.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Will the registrar please call the case next
7 on the list.
8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Case number
9 IT-96-23-A, IT-96-23/1-A, the Prosecutor versus Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir
10 Kovac, and Zoran Vukovic.
11 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: May I have the appearances, please.
12 MR. PRODANOVIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. I
13 am Slavisa Prodanovic, Defence counsel for the accused Dragoljub Kunarac.
14 MR. KOLESAR: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. My
15 name is Momir Kolesar. I am Defence counsel for the accused Radomir
16 Kovac.
17 MR. JOVANOVIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. My
18 name is Goran Jovanovic, and I represent Mr. Zoran Vukovic.
19 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you.
20 For the Prosecution.
21 MR. CARMONA: Good day, Your Honour.
22 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
23 MR. CARMONA: Good day, Your Honour. May it please you, my name
24 is Anthony Carmona. I appear on behalf of the Prosecution. Together with
25 me is Ms. Helen Brady and Ms. Rashid, Norul Rashid; and my case manager is
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1 Mr. Wolfgang Sakulin.
2 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you very much. The appellants can hear
3 me? Yes. All three appellants can hear me? Yes. Thank you.
4 We are meeting today in this Status Conference pursuant to a
5 Scheduling Order dated 26 September 2001. The last Status Conference was
6 held, I believe, on the 25th of June, 2001. The relevant Rule was then
7 read out. Is there a need for me to read out the relevant Rule again?
8 Basically, the provision of Subrule 65 bis (B) requires a Status
9 Conference to be held every 120 days in order, substantially, to allow the
10 appellants, the parties, to state any concerns they have and to afford to
11 them an opportunity to be updated by the Bench on the state of the
12 existing proceedings.
13 Now, I will have some things to say on the state of play as the
14 matters now stand, and perhaps I had better set that out first. There is
15 a briefing schedule, and the process has almost fulfilled itself, subject
16 to two points, and one is this, that -- one concerns the question of
17 filing of public versions of certain pleadings. Now, the Bench has
18 received a paper writing from the Defence for Mr. Vukovic in which they
19 take the position that the appellants' brief was filed
20 non-confidentially. It may well be, however, that if you were to discuss
21 the matter with the Registrar, you'll find there's an item, to which I
22 should not refer to in public, which is not suitable for general
23 publication and which therefore should be redacted, and that is why the
24 Registrar filed that particular pleading confidentially, although it was
25 not so submitted by Mr. Vukovic's Defence team.
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1 So could I take it that that will be done, that you will hold some
2 conversation with the Registrar to find out what exactly might be usefully
3 redacted? I think it's only probably a sentence or two, and then we could
4 proceed with the matter.
5 Then our order relating to the filing of public versions of
6 certain pleadings neglected to mention one additional pleading which might
7 be referred to now, and it's the reply by the appellants Mr. Kunarac and
8 Mr. Kovac of 4th of September, 2001. That was not specified in our order
9 requesting public versions of certain documents to be filed.
10 May I suggest that a public version of that document be now
11 filed. It was filed confidentially, I think, on 4th of September. I
12 would propose that a public version be now filed, say, within seven days.
13 Where are we today? Tuesday the 16th. I would say by Wednesday of next
14 week would be suitable. Do you think?
15 MR. PRODANOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, as far as the
16 Defence go for the Kunarac appellant, there is no problem, Your Honour.
17 We will abide by the deadline set by you.
18 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you.
19 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone. Sorry.
20 MR. KOLESAR: [Interpretation] Your Honour, the same applies to the
21 Defence team for the appellant Kovac.
22 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: The Bench is duly indebted to both of you.
23 Thank you very much.
24 Now, there remains for me to give an indication of the likely
25 hearing dates of the appeal. We have in mind - and I hope this meets with
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1 the convenience of both parties - a hearing date sometime during the first
2 week of December. I'm not in a position to specify that definitively now,
3 so I only indicate it in a provisional way and subject to confirmation so
4 that, for the convenience of counsel and the parties to the case, that
5 could be taken into account. We have in mind coming forward with a
6 Scheduling Order later on which will formally specify the exact dates of
7 the hearing we are proposing.
8 Now, the last thing which I should mention concerns -- it's a
9 housekeeping matter, really. It concerns the possible utility of some
10 degree of collaboration between Defence counsel, taking into account the
11 fact that as it appears to the Bench now, there are areas in the pleadings
12 which could usefully be the subject of some degree of cooperation between
13 Defence counsel. I speak to Defence counsel and not to prosecuting
14 counsel because there are three parties on one side and only one party on
15 the other side.
16 What I have in mind is that you have some issues which either
17 wholly or partly relate to each of the appellants, and it may be that
18 Defence counsel could work out an arrangement by which they could agree to
19 having issues of that kind presented by one Defence counsel with the other
20 Defence counsel adding any variations on the theme pursued by the first
21 Defence counsel. If you can work that out for us, that would be -- we
22 will be very willing to receive your ideas, and I suggest that you might
23 work out such a programme in time for it to be delivered to, I would
24 think, the Senior Legal Officer of the Tribunal, the Chamber, by, say, the
25 1st of November. Would that be suitable? Then the Chamber could, on the
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1 basis of that, proceed to make an order.
2 Let me indicate to you some of the issues which may lend
3 themselves to that kind of a combined treatment. There's the issue of the
4 existence of an armed conflict, the nexus between such a conflict and the
5 acts of the accused. Then there's an issue under Article 5 relating to
6 the criteria which are applicable for the determination of whether there
7 was a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population. I
8 don't think it would be particularly helpful to have a repetition of
9 common argumentation on these items.
10 And then there is another one. There's the question of the
11 definition of the crimes of enslavement, torture, and rape, and also
12 rulings about accumulated convictions and charges, and then you have also
13 the question of sentencing. There may be areas in all of these in which
14 you might detect some degree of potential overlapping, and you might want
15 to eliminate those excrescences from the presentation.
16 I appreciate, of course, that one counsel may well have a
17 different perception of an issue from that adopted by another counsel, and
18 then it would be quite legitimate for several counsel to speak on that
19 single issue, giving their own approaches to it. But broadly, I would
20 believe that there are areas which could usefully lend themselves to
21 common treatment by any one of you, as you may agree.
22 Then we have it in mind that the appeal might stretch itself out
23 over three days, and perhaps, though this may not be a matter to be
24 finally settled by you, you might indicate the relative speaking times
25 which you have in mind on particular issues. And that goes also for the
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1 Prosecution. If you would make such a presentation to the Senior Legal
2 Officer by the 1st of November, then the Bench could follow through with a
3 formal Scheduling Order, specifying, as fairly as is possible, the
4 speaking times to be allocated and the issues to be dealt with by common
5 counsel.
6 Those are the matters on my shopping list. Perhaps there are
7 others. We shall see as you take the floor.
8 Mr. Prodanovic.
9 MR. PRODANOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I would like to
10 address two points here today. The first is the question of my contact
11 with my client. As you have said, we had our last Status Conference on
12 the 26th of June, or rather, the 25th of June, and since then I have not
13 managed to see my client. So it's been almost four months. I should like
14 to give you the reason.
15 First of all, I had intended to come in August to see my client
16 and to discuss the rulings and the appeals, but my visa expired on the
17 10th of August, and already in July I addressed a request to the Registry
18 for permission to extend my visa so that I could come in August. However,
19 in spite of the efforts made, it was only on the 6th of September that I
20 finally received an extended visa. When I obtained the visa, I asked for
21 approval to come and visit my client in September, because his hand was to
22 have been operated at the end of September. The reply I was given by the
23 Registry was that at this stage there was no need for us to meet
24 frequently, and my request was rejected.
25 I appealed this decision, and in the meantime, I had intended to
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1 come at my own expense, but then I was notified that the Status Conference
2 had been scheduled for today, so in that case I decided there was no need
3 for me to come twice within a short period of time. So I leave it up to
4 Your Honours to decide whether this procedure was in order.
5 Another point I wish to address is the condition of health of my
6 client. May I remind you that in 1995 my client had his right elbow blown
7 off as a result of an explosion, and on that day a complicated operation
8 was undertaken in Belgrade by a doctor who treated those war injuries, who
9 specialises in war injuries. Because the treatment was not adequate and
10 rehabilitation in detention was not provided, the condition of his arm
11 visibly deteriorated, and at the request of the Defence counsel, with the
12 permission of the Registry and the Detention Unit, the doctor who did the
13 operation, Dr. Banovic, came here in the month of March to visit the
14 accused, carried out the necessary medical examinations, and issued a
15 report, on the basis of which it emerged that indeed his condition had
16 seriously deteriorated and that another surgery was necessary. In his
17 assessment, in the conversation he had with me, that he could guarantee
18 the success of such an operation given certain conditions, that is, the
19 theatre, the surgeon, et cetera; and after discussions here with the
20 hospital medical staff, he said that if the hospital staff did not have
21 the necessary facilities, he suggested that a team come from Belgrade to
22 assist him. The upshot was that a decision would be taken, and the date
23 of the operation was set for June. In the meantime, Dr. Banovic would
24 provide information regarding the conditions he required.
25 I contacted Dr. Banovic and he informed me that he had not
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1 received any kind of notification and probably the operation could be done
2 at the end of September. He was expecting to be informed, as he had
3 contacts with the head of the Detention Unit, and he told me that he
4 expected that it could be at the end of September.
5 A couple of days ago, that is, just before I was about to leave to
6 come here, I got in touch with Dr. Banovic again and he said that he had
7 been in touch with the head of the Detention Unit and that he had told me
8 that the date for the operation had still not been fixed, was uncertain.
9 He reiterated then that it would be necessary for that surgery to be
10 carried out as soon as possible, because otherwise there is a very high
11 probability that Kunarac could lose his arm.
12 So I must say again that everything is uncertain as to when the
13 surgery will be done, and I am tabling this issue before you in the fear
14 that, unless such medical treatment is provided, the appellant Kunarac
15 could lose his hand.
16 Thank you, Your Honour. Those were all the points I have to
17 address.
18 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you, Mr. Prodanovic. There are two
19 issues you have raised. One concerns visiting your client. The other one
20 concerns the issue of visas. I think you will appreciate that the
21 question of visas is a matter really for the administrative authorities of
22 the host country. Certainly I think you could fairly expect the support
23 of the Tribunal in any request which you may make for a visa to be issued
24 on all proper occasions.
25 The second one has to do with your right to visit your client. My
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1 understanding is this: that you do have a right to visit your client on
2 all necessary occasions, but that is to be separated from the question
3 whether the Tribunal is to incur any financial expenses in connection with
4 any such visit. You may visit on a daily basis, for example. The
5 Tribunal might not be fairly expected to pay for a return trip as between
6 here and Belgrade on a very frequent basis.
7 So that is the position as regards visas and visits.
8 Incidentally, I'm glad to see you here, I'm glad that you've got a
9 visa, and I do hope that your visa will be in force to enable you to
10 attend the hearings of the appeals whenever the hearing is fixed. I
11 believe at the moment, we have in mind the first week in December.
12 Now we come to this question of provisional release. I believe
13 that an order has been made and may have been distributed to you.
14 It seems to me that the operation, from what you've said, could be
15 done in the Netherlands and Dr. Banovic could come for it, and if that is
16 the basis under which you are working, the necessary support could
17 usefully be given by the Registry on that matter to enable the operation
18 to be undertaken here in the presence of or with the assistance of
19 Mr. Banovic, as the health regulations may permit or prescribe. There is
20 no problem there. And if per chance it is necessary to rethink the
21 affixing of the dates of hearing because of that circumstance, well, then,
22 that would have to be done.
23 Mr. Kolesar.
24 MR. KOLESAR: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I, too, will touch upon
25 two points. The first follows on from what my learned colleague lawyer
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1 Prodanovic has just said. I absolutely agree with you in that frequent
2 visits, and when they are of no particular use, cannot be at the expense
3 of the Tribunal. That is quite clear to one and all. However, the
4 Defence of all three accused in the proceedings so far, and in my profound
5 conviction, never abused that right, and we kept our visits to a minimum.
6 They were not frequent, and they were never useless.
7 Let me inform Your Honour and the rest of you that I visited my
8 client twice at my own expense because I considered it necessary for us to
9 meet, and this was --
10 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Kolesar, may I say to you that my
11 explanations were of a general order, and they were not intended to be
12 directed against any particular person.
13 MR. KOLESAR: [Interpretation] Absolutely so, Your Honour. I never
14 doubted that. I didn't feel that it was addressed to me personally.
15 However, I cannot accept the position taken by the Registry, which
16 is that we can, with the client, at any stage of the proceedings, whether
17 when the judgement is in force or the appeals process, that we can contact
18 by telephone. I still hear the words of the President of the Trial
19 Chamber when she said, "Do you know, Defence counsel, that your counsel --
20 that your client stands accused of grievous crimes?" I am fully aware of
21 that, and because of that, the Registry would have to be far more
22 flexible, I think.
23 We don't have much time until the proceedings come to a final
24 close, and therefore, I should like to appeal to the Registry that in
25 addition to the telephone -- we do have the right to have telephone
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1 conversations with our client, to ask him how he feels, what his state of
2 health is like, but with respect to the brief itself, we don't have time
3 over the phone to go into all the details, and very often the lines are
4 engaged.
5 I asked for a visit from the 1st to the 4th. I was accorded this
6 right on the 1st, when it was too late and when I had received information
7 that the Status Conference was already scheduled for today, so that I
8 received this information late. And in August I visited my client once at
9 my own expense. That is, of course, my own personal problem.
10 But the other point that I should like to raise has to do with the
11 suggestion you made. On behalf of the Kovac Defence team, I accept with
12 satisfaction the idea that certain common positions should be presented by
13 one lawyer so as to not to lose time, and only when our positions differ
14 should we take up the Court's time. But so far, we have always been in
15 agreement.
16 What I, however, am afraid of is that the 1st of November might be
17 too short a time. It's the 16th of October today, which means that the
18 1st of November is fairly soon. We go back on Thursday. My colleague
19 Mr. Jovanovic returns a little later, but we would have to discuss this
20 for a few days, to put it down on paper and to present it to the Court,
21 therefore, I should like to ask the Court's indulgence. Could you extend
22 that deadline by approximately ten days, which would give us enough time
23 to do our work properly and therefore be at the service of the Tribunal
24 and the proceedings in general?
25 So those, Your Honour, are the points that I wish to make. Thank
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1 you.
2 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: What about the 7th of November? What day of
3 the week will that be, Ms. Registrar, 7th of November?
4 [Appeals Chamber and legal officer confer]
5 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: What about the Friday? What date is that?
6 Calendars are in short supply.
7 [Appeals Chamber and legal officer confer]
8 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: What about Friday, the 9th? Is that
9 agreeable to all counsel? Friday the 9th. All right.
10 MR. KOLESAR: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour, the 9th is
11 agreeable.
12 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Then I give the floor to Mr. Jovanovic.
13 MR. JOVANOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour. I also
14 have one or two issues to address, or rather, responses to questions
15 posed. First of all, with respect to the Zoran Vukovic Defence, we'll be
16 happy to contact the Registry and clear up any questions with respect to
17 the public character and filing of public versions of pleadings. I am
18 very sorry that this has not been taken off the agenda yet. We feel that
19 the Defence team has done everything in its power to do this and to get
20 clarifications as to which portions would comply with confidentiality.
21 Your Honour said that it was probably a question of one or two sentences.
22 I'm sure we'll be able to solve that problem in the course of the day and
23 to proceed further.
24 The second question is one that we have heard quite a lot about
25 already.
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1 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, Judge, please.
2 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes. Yes. You're right.
3 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, Judge, please. The microphone for
4 Judge Shahabudeen, please.
5 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes. It is in connection with Mr. Vukovic's
6 pleadings that I mentioned the possible desirability of considering
7 whether one or two sentences might need to be redacted. That's correct.
8 May I also mention this: that I was talking of the appellants'
9 reply, that is, reply of Messrs. Kunarac and Kovac of the 4th of
10 September, and I suggested that public versions might be filed, but I
11 don't think I indicated a date, did I? Would the 24th be agreeable to you
12 for that purpose? I suggest the 24th of this month for the filing of a
13 public version of the reply of Messrs. Kunarac and Kovac.
14 Yes, Mr. Jovanovic. I'm sorry, I interjected some other matters
15 there.
16 MR. JOVANOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour.
17 The second question, as my colleagues have already touched upon
18 that subject, I would like to add a few words, because this, conditionally
19 speaking, problem, is escalating in an undesirable direction. What I mean
20 is the problem that my colleagues put forward, that is to say, the
21 possibility of my being in contact with my client. And when the problem
22 first cropped up, I informed the Appeals Chamber about that and tabled a
23 new request, which was rejected. The Defence feels that this is somewhat
24 strange. The Registry gave me an answer and made a comment. They said
25 that my request for the authorisation of travel, which I asked for
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1 consultations and visits to my client, was sparse. I didn't think that it
2 was necessary for me to go into the details of my contacts with my client
3 in this request.
4 The second point I wish to raise is the following: Like my
5 colleague Mr. Kolesar, I too was informed that I could use the
6 confidential telephone line. I am well aware of that. But for the same
7 reasons that Mr. Kolesar put forward, I can't be on that telephone line
8 for hours, nor can I send documents in that way which have reached me in
9 the meantime, such as the response from the Prosecution to our appeal, and
10 my client, therefore, was not informed about the contents of those
11 documents. All I was able to tell him is that the documents arrived in
12 the meantime and the steps we ourselves are taking.
13 So I do fear that if we don't have the chance of contacting our
14 client in a different way, a barrier will have been erected which could
15 have an influence on the proceedings. I know that the Defence cannot ask
16 the registry to be here non-stop, round the clock, and to be able to talk
17 to the client whenever they feel like it, but if we look at the requests
18 that we have made and when we have made that, then I am sure we will form
19 into the general scheduling and framework in which contacts with our
20 client would be very necessary.
21 So those, Your Honour, are some of the points that I wish to put
22 forward here and now, and as far as I have been informed, my client also
23 wished to ask leave to address the Court. Thank you, Your Honour. That
24 would be all.
25 I do apologise, Your Honour. There is one other detail to support
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1 what I said a moment ago. When we came here today, we learnt, prior to
2 our arrival in the courtroom, that Mr. Kolesar was given the okay for the
3 trip. We all asked to be allowed to travel, but it was only Mr. Kolesar
4 who received this notice and was allowed to do so, which means that a
5 certain amount of discrimination has taken place. Because we're all
6 working on the same case, and if one person is allowed to come, then the
7 others should be able to come too, because Mr. Kolesar cannot do the work
8 of all three of us.
9 That would be all, Your Honour. Thank you.
10 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Jovanovic, your client wishes to speak
11 now?
12 MR. JOVANOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.
13 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Kolesar would like to speak?
14 Mr. Kolesar, may we hear Mr. Jovanovic's client, first? I understood that
15 his client wished to speak.
16 MR. KOLESAR: [Interpretation] Your Honour, that has nothing to do
17 with what I was going to say and with this subject. I would like on my
18 own behalf and on behalf of Mr. Kunarac that we agree with the date the
19 4th of October [sic] for the public versions. We agree with the date the
20 4th of October [sic]. That's all I wanted to add.
21 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Very happily accepted. Very happily
22 accepted.
23 Now, Mr. Vukovic would speak.
24 THE APPELLANT VUKOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour.
25 My attorney, Mr. Jovanovic, has just explained the problem to you. I am
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1 faced with a situation in which I will have to withdraw the power of
2 attorney to Mr. Jovanovic because I am not being kept abreast of all the
3 proceedings with respect to the appellants' brief, the appeals process.
4 If the gentleman from the Registry wish to have problems of this kind and
5 extend these proceedings for God knows what reason, then that is the
6 situation I am faced with. That is all I wanted to say. Thank you.
7 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Jovanovic and Mr. Vukovic, I am grateful
8 to you for your presentations. May I say this: that in principle, as we
9 would all accept, would naturally respect the right of the party, the
10 appellant, to be in free consultation with his counsel. That's very
11 necessary for the progress of the work of the Tribunal and also for the
12 sound administration of justice. So there's no question about that.
13 But I do believe that the Registry has in mind certain financial
14 disciplines, if I may use that term, and what I would do is this: I would
15 draw a distinction between the right of consultation and the duty of the
16 Registry to incur expenditures except on the basis which appears to the
17 Registry to be reasonable. But on that point, I would direct the
18 secretary today to forward to the Registry a transcript of these
19 proceedings with a request that every care be taken to ensure that the
20 expenses are paid on those occasions on which it is clear that there is a
21 reasonable need for the client to consult with counsel. That will be
22 done.
23 MR. JOVANOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you very much for your
24 understanding, Your Honour.
25 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you. Now we have finished with this
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1 side of the Court. We turn to that side of the Court, to the Prosecution
2 bench -- yes, Mr. Jovanovic.
3 MR. JOVANOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I do apologise for
4 taking the floor again, but I've just noticed that Mr. Kunarac wishes to
5 address the Court as well.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Prodanovic, what do you say?
7 MR. JOVANOVIC: [Interpretation] My colleague Mr. Prodanovic
8 didn't note -- notice.
9 MR. PRODANOVIC: [Interpretation] I did not notice the precise
10 moment when my client, Mr. Kunarac, asked leave to take the floor, so I
11 didn't react. May we allow him to do so?
12 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: You do not have the advantage of ready
13 visibility from the position which you occupy. So we're grateful to
14 Mr. Jovanovic for having noticed that fact, and we invite Mr. Kunarac to
15 take the floor.
16 THE APPELLANT KUNARAC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, thank you
17 very much for allowing me to address the Court. I have followed these
18 proceedings with respect to the visits by the attorneys. Let me say that
19 from the end of trial to the present day, I saw my lawyer four times, four
20 times in the space of one year. On the 26th of November last year was the
21 last date of the trial -- day of the trial. I saw him again in February
22 when the judgement was delivered. I next saw him in the month of April,
23 between the judgement and the judgement received in the B/C/S version, and
24 the last time I saw him was on the 15th of June when I actually received
25 the judgement myself.
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1 On the 26th of June, he attended a meeting, but I had a family
2 visit and the Detention Unit does not allow visits by family members and
3 attorneys at the same time. So I did not see him on that occasion. This
4 is the first time I'm seeing him after that.
5 He wrote at -- an appeal and I saw the text of the appeal today.
6 He received a response by the Prosecutor to that appeal, but I haven't had
7 a chance to see it yet. He then responded to the response of the
8 Prosecution, and I have not had occasion to see that text either, which
9 means I have not had occasion to contribute to my own defence, and
10 therefore, I don't think that these proceedings are fair and just in that
11 sense. I do not have the chance. I'm not being given the chance to
12 participate in my own defence. If you consider that that is fair and
13 just, let it be so. Thank you.
14 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Well, thank you, Mr. Kunarac. Be assured
15 that your statement would be included in the transmission to be made to
16 the Registrar with an expression of opinion from the Bench that expenses
17 be met by the Registry on all occasions on which it is proper for
18 consultations to be had, bearing in mind that it is very necessary for
19 consultations to be had if the work of the Tribunal is to proceed in a
20 sound and sensible way.
21 Now we turn finally to the Prosecution again, and I invite
22 Mr. Carmona to take the floor. Do you have anything to say, Mr. Carmona?
23 MR. CARMONA: Indeed, Your Honour. The Prosecution wishes to
24 align itself with the view expressed by the Court with regard to the
25 suggestion that common grounds of appeal are in fact dealt with in the
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1 manner suggested, in the context relatively of time and opportunity as the
2 case presents itself. We wish to endorse this approach in keeping with
3 the need for expedition in these proceedings, and to that extent we wish
4 to not only endorse but indicate likewise we intend to structure our
5 arguments in a manner that will facilitate this approach by the Tribunal.
6 To the extent that redaction is required in relation to the
7 Vukovic brief, the Prosecution indicates at this status hearing that it is
8 our intention to revisit our response brief to meet with the concerns as
9 expressed by the Court on this whole concept of redaction for public
10 consumption.
11 Apart from this, Your Honour, this essentially is what in fact we
12 wish to indicate at this point in time. I'm much obliged.
13 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Very good. Mr. Hocking.
14 [Appeals Chamber and legal officer confer]
15 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: I think we've had a useful afternoon and
16 concerns which have been expressed have been duly noted and will be
17 transmitted in a proper way for the necessary action to be taken by the
18 Registry.
19 There seems to be nothing more to be said from any quarter to the
20 Bench. We would now take the adjournment.
21 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned
22 at 3.30 p.m.
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