Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 391

1 Friday, 3 May 2002

2 [Initial Appearance]

3 [Open session]

4 [The accused entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 5.02 p.m.

6 JUDGE KWON: Madam Registrar, will you please call the case.

7 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour. Good afternoon. This is case

8 IT-99-37-I, the Prosecutor of the Tribunal against Slobodan Milosevic,

9 Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic, Vlajko

10 Stojiljkovic.

11 JUDGE KWON: Thank you. May I have the appearances.

12 MS. DEL PONTE: Yes, Your Honour. The Prosecution is represented

13 by myself, Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, with trial attorney Milbert Shin

14 and case manager Rebecca Graham. Thank you, Your Honour.

15 JUDGE KWON: Thank you, Madam Prosecutor.

16 Well, for the Defence?

17 MR. FILA: [Interpretation] Your Honour, my name is Toma Fila, an

18 attorney from Belgrade, and together with Mr. Zoran Jovanovic, also a

19 lawyer from Belgrade, I represent the Defence of Mr. Nikola Sainovic.

20 Thank you.

21 JUDGE KWON: Thank you, Mr. Fila.

22 Mr. Sainovic, can you hear the proceedings in a language you can

23 understand?

24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour, I can follow it in

25 the language I understand.

Page 392

1 JUDGE KWON: Very well. Then may I have your full name and date

2 of birth?

3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] My name is Nikola Sainovic, born on

4 7 December 1948.

5 JUDGE KWON: Thank you. You may sit again.

6 Before we go on, I have to say sorry, to all of the people here

7 and those assisting us behind doors, to have a hearing at this late hour

8 of the day; however, this was the only available time we could find, due

9 to the heavy schedule of trials which are going on at this moment.

10 This is an Initial Appearance to be conducted in accordance with

11 Rule 62 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of this Tribunal. The

12 purpose of this hearing is, firstly, for the Court to be satisfied that

13 the accused understands the indictment; and secondly, for the accused to

14 enter a plea to the indictment.

15 In regard to the first question, Mr. Fila, may I take it that your

16 client has received a copy of the indictment in a language that he can

17 understand and that you have had the opportunity of going through the

18 indictment with him?

19 MR. FILA: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.

20 JUDGE KWON: Very well. Does your client wish to have the

21 indictment read out in full in the courtroom or is he prepared to waive

22 that right?

23 MR. FILA: [Interpretation] My client is ready to waive the right

24 of the reading of the indictment. He is well acquainted with it and there

25 is no need for the reading.

Page 393

1 JUDGE KWON: Thank you. Then we'll have the entry of the plea of

2 the accused.

3 The accused may enter a plea within 30 days of the Initial

4 Appearance, but he may enter a plea today if he so wishes.

5 Mr. Fila, what is your client's intention? Does he wish to enter

6 a plea today or do it later?

7 MR. FILA: [Interpretation] Your Honour, my client will plead

8 today.

9 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.

10 Mr. Sainovic, will you please stand again. Have you heard what

11 your counsel has said? Has the indictment been explained to you?

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes. I have studied the indictment

13 carefully.

14 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Very well. Now I will read to you the counts

15 in the Second Amended Indictment. You will then enter a plea to each

16 count. Please confine your answers to either "guilty" or "not guilty."

17 Do you understand that?

18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I understand.

19 JUDGE KWON: Count 1 of the indictment charges you with

20 deportation, a crime against humanity, punishable under Article 5(d) of

21 the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?

22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I plead not guilty, Your Honour.

23 JUDGE KWON: Count 2 charges you with other inhumane acts, i.e.,

24 forcible transfer, a crime against humanity, punishable under Article 5(i)

25 of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you plead to that?

Page 394

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and

13 English transcripts.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Page 395

1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Not guilty.

2 JUDGE KWON: And counts 3 and 4 relate to the alleged killing of

3 the Kosovo Albanian civilians between the 1st of January and the 20th of

4 June in 1999.

5 Count 3 charges you with murder, a crime against humanity,

6 punishable under Article 5(a) of the Statute of the Tribunal. How do you

7 plead?

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I plead not guilty.

9 JUDGE KWON: And count 4 charges you with murder, a violation of

10 the laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of the Statute the

11 Tribunal, and recognised by Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva Conventions.

12 How do you plead?

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Not guilty.

14 JUDGE KWON: And finally, count 5 charges you with persecutions on

15 political, racial, and religious grounds, a crime against humanity,

16 punishable under Article 5(h) of the Statute. How do you plead, guilty or

17 not guilty?

18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I plead not guilty, Your Honour.

19 JUDGE KWON: Thank you. This completes the pleas. Now you may

20 sit again.

21 There are a couple of miscellaneous matters I have to deal with at

22 this moment. First I would like to remind Madam Prosecutor of her duty

23 under Rule 66(A)(i) to make available to the Defence, in the language that

24 the accused understands and within 30 days from now, all the supporting

25 materials that accompanied the indictment and all prior statements

Page 396

1 obtained from the accused. Of course I take it that that obligation will

2 be discharged, but do you have any comments on that, madam?

3 MS. DEL PONTE: Yes, Your Honour. Just to inform, we will be

4 disclosing the material both in English and B/C/S, the language of the

5 accused. The total quantity of the material in English and B/C/S will be

6 14 binders in total. For all but one of the binders we have all material

7 ready in English and B/C/S, but in relation to this binder, there are

8 48 pages still in the process of translation in B/C/S. We will endeavour

9 to have the translations completed on this binder, all ready for

10 disclosure by Friday, 17 May.

11 However, before we disclose the materials, we will be filing a

12 motion for non-disclosure of the material to the public. We will also be

13 filing a motion to extend the protective measures applied to the Milosevic

14 case to certain witnesses to this case and will await a response to that

15 motion before we can disclose such materials.

16 In the Milosevic case, we sought and obtained permission from the

17 Chamber to use pseudonyms and not to disclose the statements of certain

18 witnesses until 30 days before they testify, for the amici, and 10 days

19 before for the accused. So presuming we are ready to start disclosure as

20 soon as possible, by Monday, 6 May, with regard to material not the

21 subject of the motion to extend protective measures because we await the

22 decision. Thank you, Your Honour.

23 JUDGE KWON: Very well. Thank you, madam. We will wait for the

24 motion from you.

25 And the second question will be the next hearing, a Status

Page 397

1 Conference. I note that the Status Conference for the co-accused,

2 Mr. Ojdanic, has been scheduled to take place on Friday, the 21st of June,

3 at 3 p.m. We'll have a joint hearing for the purpose of

4 the Status Conference.

5 This concludes today's hearing. And are there -- I wonder if

6 there's anything the parties wish to raise at this moment.

7 For the Prosecution? No.

8 MS. DEL PONTE: No.

9 MR. FILA: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour, just one thing. I

10 have carefully listened to what Madam Prosecutor had to say. In the

11 Milosevic case there are amici curiae. Here there are none, so this ten

12 days deadline is not acceptable to me. Thirty days, however, would be

13 acceptable. Thank you very much.

14 JUDGE KWON: The Trial Chamber will consider it in due course.

15 Thank you.

16 Then there being no other things to be dealt with, this hearing is

17 adjourned.

18 --- Whereupon the Initial Appearance adjourned at

19 5.14 p.m.

20

21

22

23

24

25