Page 385
1 Friday, 26 April 2002
2 [Initial Appearance]
3 [Open session]
4 [The accused entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 2.30 p.m.
6 JUDGE ROBINSON: There's a disturbance --
7 [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]
8 JUDGE ROBINSON: After that technical difficulty, I'll ask the
9 Registrar to call the case.
10 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour. Good afternoon. This is case
11 number IT-99-37-I, the Prosecutor versus Slobodan Milosevic, Milan
12 Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic, Vlajko Stojiljkovic.
13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you. And may I have the appearances.
14 MS. DEL PONTE: Yes, Your Honour. The Prosecution is represented
15 by myself, Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, with my collaborator, Trial
16 Attorney Christina Romano, and the Case Manager, Rebecca Graham.
17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much, Madam Prosecutor.
18 For the Defence.
19 MR. VISNJIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, for the Defence,
20 myself, Tomislav Visnjic, attorney-at-law from Belgrade, together with my
21 colleagues Vojislav Selezan, an attorney-at-law from Belgrade, and Peter
22 Robinson, an attorney-at-law from the United States of America.
23 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much. This is the initial
24 appearance of Mr. Ojdanic, and the initial appearance is conducted under
25 Rule 62 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. At this hearing, the
Page 386
1 accused will be asked to enter a plea to the Second Amended Indictment in
2 the case against him.
3 Mr. Visnjic, may I take it that your client has received a copy of
4 the indictment in a language that he understands and that you have had the
5 opportunity of going through the indictment with him?
6 MR. VISNJIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, that is correct.
7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you. Does your client wish to have the
8 indictment read out in full or is he prepared to waive that right?
9 MR. VISNJIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, our client is prepared
10 to waive his right to have the indictment read out to him in its
11 entirety.
12 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you. In that case, let the accused stand.
13 Mr. Ojdanic, please stand. You have heard what your counsel has
14 said. The indictment has been explained to you.
15 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I confirm what my lawyer said, that
17 I have been familiarised with the contents of the indictment. I have
18 understood it well, and I personally consider that there is no need for me
19 to hear it once again here in its entirety.
20 JUDGE ROBINSON: Very well, Mr. Ojdanic.
21 Now, I'm going to read to you the counts in the Second Amended
22 Indictment, and to each count you will enter a plea. Confine your answers
23 to either "guilty" or "not guilty."
24 Count 1 charges you with deportation, a crime against humanity,
25 punishable under Article 5(d) of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you
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1 plead; guilty or not guilty?
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I plead not guilty.
3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Count 2 charges you with other inhumane acts
4 (forcible transfer), a crime against humanity, punishable under Article
5 5(i) of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead?
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I plead not guilty, Your Honour.
7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Counts 3 and 4 relate to the alleged killing of
8 hundreds of Kosovo Albanian civilians between 1 January 1999 and 20 June
9 1999.
10 Count 3 charges you with murder, a crime against humanity,
11 punishable under Article 5(a) of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you
12 plead; guilty or not guilty?
13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Also I plead not guilty.
14 JUDGE ROBINSON: And count 4 charges you with murder, a violation
15 of the laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of the Statute
16 of the Tribunal and recognised by Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva
17 Conventions. How do you plead; guilty or not guilty?
18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Not guilty.
19 JUDGE ROBINSON: Count 5 charges you with persecutions on
20 political, racial, and religious grounds, a crime against humanity,
21 punishable under Article 5(h) of the Statute. How do you plead; guilty or
22 not guilty?
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Again, I plead not guilty.
24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you. That completes the pleas. You may
25 sit.
Page 389
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] You're welcome. Thank you very
2 much.
3 JUDGE ROBINSON: There are two or three other matters incidental
4 that I would raise at this time.
5 Madam Prosecutor, I just remind you of the duty of the Prosecutor
6 to make available to the Defence, in a language that the accused
7 understands, within 30 days of the Initial Appearance, copies of all the
8 supporting material which accompany the indictment, as well as all prior
9 statements. That's the standard requirement under Rule 66(A)(i), and I
10 take it that that obligation will be discharged.
11 I come next to the question of the next hearing, a Status
12 Conference. My intention is that this Status Conference should be
13 organised as quickly as possible, because I foresee a number of incidental
14 matters arising, both for the Defence as well as the Prosecutor. As you
15 know, we have a very crowded timetable, and I would have liked to have had
16 it organised to take place within a month. That has not proved to be
17 possible, and the first date that's available is Friday, the 21st of June,
18 at 3 p.m.
19 MS. DEL PONTE: Thank you, Your Honour. I can inform the Court
20 about the disclosure timetable. We have the total quantity of the
21 material in English and in B/C/S, and that are, in total, 14 binders. For
22 all except one of the binders, we have all material ready in English and
23 B/C/S, and in relation to this binder, there are 30 pages still in
24 translation process to B/C/S. So that we think that the translations can
25 be completed and all binders ready for disclosure by Friday, 10 May.
Page 390
1 However, Your Honour, before we disclose the material fully, we
2 will be filing a motion for non-disclosure of the material to the public.
3 We will also be filing a motion to extend the protective measures applied
4 to the Milosevic case to a certain witness to this case, and we would
5 appreciate if we can wait to the response to the motion before disclosing
6 the material. In any case, we are ready to start disclosure by Monday, 6
7 May.
8 About the Status Conference, I take notice. We will be ready, and
9 we will get in touch with the Defence counsel for this Status Conference
10 preparation. Yes.
11 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much. We will await the motions
12 that you will file.
13 Mr. Visnjic, anything that you wish to raise?
14 MR. VISNJIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, not for the time
15 being. Not until we receive some material from the Office of the
16 Prosecutor. For the time being, there is nothing I have to raise.
17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you very much.
18 Well, there being no other matters, this hearing stands
19 adjourned.
20 --- Whereupon the Initial Appearance adjourned
21 at 2.45 p.m.
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