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1 Wednesday, 17 May 2000
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The appellants entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 4.23 p.m.
6 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Call the
7 case, please.
8 THE REGISTRAR: [Interpretation] Case number
9 IT-95-16-A, the Prosecutor versus Zoran Kupreskic,
10 Mirjan Kupreskic, Vlatko Kupreskic, Drago Josipovic,
11 Vladimir Santic, appeals procedure.
12 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Can I please
13 have the appearances.
14 MR. YAPA: May it please Your Honour. I'm
15 Upawansa Yapa, appearing for the Prosecution with
16 Mr. Christopher Staker and Mr. Norman Farrell.
17 Ms. Adele Erasmus is the case manager.
18 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Thank you
19 very much.
20 Can I have the appearances for the Defence,
21 please.
22 MR. RADOVIC: [Interpretation] Mr. President,
23 my name is Ranko Radovic, I'm an attorney at law from
24 Zagreb, and I'm appearing here on behalf of Zoran
25 Kupreskic.
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1 MS. SLOKOVIC-GLUMAC: [Interpretation] Good
2 afternoon, Your Honour. My name is Jadranka
3 Slokovic-Glumac, I'm an attorney at law, and I'm
4 defending Mirjan Kupreskic in this case.
5 MR. KRAJINA: [Interpretation] Good afternoon,
6 Your Honour. My name is Borislav Krajina; I'm an
7 attorney at law from Sarajevo. My co-counsel is
8 Mr. Zelimir Par, who is an attorney at law from
9 Zagreb. Today we are appearing on behalf of the
10 accused Vlatko Kupreskic.
11 I have to inform Your Honour that yesterday
12 the accused Vlatko Kupreskic cancelled the power of
13 attorney for this case to me as his main counsel, and
14 to Mr. Par as co-counsel. The Registry of the Tribunal
15 has asked us to be present at this Status Conference
16 nevertheless and to represent the accused Kupreskic
17 until a further decision is made by the Registrar.
18 Thank you very much.
19 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Thank you.
20 I will take note of what you have just said. The
21 Registry will therefore have to make a decision
22 pursuant to the request made by the accused.
23 Could the other counsel present themselves as
24 well, please.
25 MR. SUSAK: [Interpretation] Your Honour, my
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1 name is Luka Susak, I'm an attorney at law from Zagreb,
2 and I am representing Drago Josipovic.
3 MR. PAVKOVIC: [Interpretation] Good
4 afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Petar Pavkovic,
5 I'm an attorney at law from Zagreb, and I am
6 representing Vladimir Santic, together with my
7 colleague Mr. Mitko Vrdoljak, who is also an attorney
8 at law from Zagreb. Thank you.
9 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Very well.
10 Thank you.
11 As you all know, this is a Status Conference
12 which is being conducted for the first time in the
13 appellate procedure in the Kupreskic case, pursuant to
14 Rule 65 bis of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence --
15 I'm sorry, 65(B), or rather 65 bis.
16 I am now going to read the relevant text:
17 "An Appeals Chamber or an Appeals Chamber Judge shall
18 convene a status conference, within one hundred twenty
19 days of the filing of a notice of appeal and thereafter
20 within one hundred twenty days after the last status
21 conference, to allow any person in custody pending
22 appeal the opportunity to raise issues in relation
23 thereto, including the mental and physical condition of
24 that person."
25 As the parties are probably familiar with,
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1 there has been an order issued by the Appeals Chamber
2 recently whereby I have been designated as the
3 pre-appeal Judge for this case. Let me remind you of
4 the said order. The order in question was issued on
5 the 16th of May, 2000, whereby a pre-appeal Judge was
6 designated for this particular case.
7 Of course, pursuant to Rule 65 ter of the
8 Rules of Procedure, I will personally take care of the
9 communication between the two parties during this
10 pre-appeal phase of the procedure.
11 The objective of this particular procedure is
12 to achieve an expeditious and fair procedure as
13 provided for by the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. I
14 will also take care of the time limits provided for by
15 the Rules and also to envisage all the necessary
16 measures that have to be taken so that the case can be
17 prepared for a fair and expeditious proceeding.
18 So far, you know that in accordance with the
19 Rules, the party seeking to appeal the judgement must
20 file a brief within a certain period of time which is
21 provided for by the Rules, which is three months after
22 the judgement. This is also provided for in the
23 relevant Rules.
24 Let me also remind you of the relevant
25 provisions. One of the Rules that we're dealing with
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1 here is Rule 111, which regulates appellate's brief,
2 and it has to be filed within 90 days of filing of the
3 notice of appeal pursuant to Rule 108, and it has to
4 contain both facts and legal arguments.
5 Rule 108 provides as follows: "A party
6 seeking to appeal a judgement shall not, more than
7 fifteen days from the date at which the judgement was
8 pronounced, file a notice of appeal."
9 There has been already a request for
10 extension of time limits by the appellant, and the
11 Chamber has granted the motion of the appellant by
12 extending the time limits in an order which was issued
13 on the 18th of April. The time limit was extended
14 until the 2nd of June, 2000.
15 There has been a second request by the
16 appellant, which was filed on the 25th of April,
17 whereby the appellant has requested a further extension
18 of time. The Prosecutor has responded to the motion
19 filed by Defence, and the Chamber has made a decision
20 issued on the 16th of May. It has decided to grant
21 additional extension of time to the appellant, namely,
22 to the 2nd of July, 2000, bearing in mind a number of
23 considerations that have been exposed by the appellant
24 and which are contained in the appellant's motion.
25 I should like to hear whether on this
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1 particular issue, that is, the request filed by the
2 appellant, which was followed by the decision which I
3 just mentioned to you, the decision of the 16th of May,
4 whether there is anything that you wish to say.
5 I will give the floor to the Defence. I
6 assume that you have been made familiar with the
7 Appeals Chamber's decision of the 16th of May, 2000.
8 Is there anything you wish to say?
9 MR. RADOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour,
10 having consulted my colleagues, I can say that so far
11 we have no objections to this deadline.
12 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Very well
13 then. I take it then that Mr. Radovic has spoken on
14 behalf of the Defence team as a whole, and as far as I
15 understand, you will be able to file your brief before
16 the 2nd of July, 2000, so that we can continue with the
17 procedure which is provided for in the Rules, which we
18 need not be reminded of once again.
19 As regards the elements of the case, I think
20 that this is the only thing that the Chamber has been
21 seized of so far.
22 I should also like to say that the
23 Prosecutor, if they also -- I should like to hear the
24 Prosecutor whether they have anything to say at this
25 Status Conference.
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1 Is there anything you wish to raise?
2 MR. YAPA: Your Honour, we have no matter to
3 be raised at this stage. Thank you.
4 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Thank you,
5 very much, Mr. Yapa.
6 As regards the Defence -- Mr. Radovic, can he
7 once again act as porte-parole for the Defence -- is
8 there anything else the Defence wishes to raise at this
9 point?
10 Mr. Radovic.
11 MR. RADOVIC: [Interpretation] No, Your
12 Honour.
13 JUDGE BENNOUNA: [Interpretation] Thank you
14 very much, Mr. Radovic.
15 You know that I am here in my capacity of
16 Pre-appeal Judge, and you can always contact me either
17 through Mr. Hocking or directly to myself. You can
18 always contact me concerning any matters that concern
19 the Pre-appeal Judge. However, if there is anything
20 that should be the matter of the Appeals Chamber as a
21 whole, in that case, I will have to convey the relevant
22 message to the Appeals Chamber in its full
23 composition.
24 Pursuant to the Rules, I now give the floor
25 to the Defence but also to the accused who are present
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1 here in the courtroom. The accused may take the floor
2 directly or they can express themselves through their
3 counsel.
4 I have to inquire here at this point about
5 your health, physical and mental health, and about any
6 other issues that you wish to raise concerning your
7 detention conditions. I should also like to hear any
8 questions, if you have any, again concerning the Rules
9 of Detention. You know that the Rules provide that you
10 can raise all relevant issues here during this
11 conference.
12 According to the Rules governing the
13 detention procedure before the Tribunal, those
14 questions need to be brought, first of all, before the
15 relevant detention unit authorities. This is provided
16 for in Rule 44, which says that the matters should be
17 brought to the commander of the detention unit and also
18 to the Registrar. However, of course you can bring all
19 the necessary matters regarding your conditions of
20 detention at this Status Conference.
21 Mr. Radovic, is there anything that you wish
22 to say? Do you wish to act as a porte-parole for your
23 colleagues?
24 As far as I can see, the accused do not
25 intend to speak, and all I can conclude is that there
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1 are no questions at the moment that need to be raised
2 and which concern the issues of mental or physical
3 health of the accused.
4 If there's nothing else that you wish to
5 bring, I will adjourn this hearing, this Status
6 Conference.
7 Is there anything else that you wish to
8 mention, aside from what I have already said? No?
9 In that case, we will adjourn this hearing.
10 You will, of course, be informed about the next Status
11 Conference. If it is necessary, it can always be
12 convened before the expiration of the time limits
13 provided for in the Rules governing the appellate
14 proceedings.
15 The hearing stands adjourned.
16 --- Whereupon the Status Conference
17 adjourned at 4.40 p.m.
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