Page 691
1 Monday, 13 May 2013
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The accused entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 3.29 p.m.
6 JUDGE LIU: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
7 Mr. Registrar, would you please call the case please.
8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honours. This is case
9 IT-05-87-A, the Prosecutor versus Sainovic et al. Thank you.
10 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
11 May I now please have the appearances of the parties, first the
12 Prosecution.
13 MS. PINZAUTI: Good afternoon, Your Honour. My name is
14 Julia Pinzauti, appearing for the Prosecution together with
15 Mr. Aditya Menon and Ms. Djurija Mirkovic, our case manager. Thank you.
16 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much.
17 And now the Defence counsel, please.
18 MR. PETROVIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour,
19 Vladimir Petrovic for Mr. Nikola Sainovic.
20 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
21 MR. ALEKSIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour.
22 Aleksandar Aleksic for the Defence of General Pavkovic.
23 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
24 MR. CEPIC: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Myself, Djuro Cepic for
25 General Vladimir Lazarevic.
Page 692
1 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much.
2 MR. IVETIC: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Appearing on behalf of
3 Sreten Lukic, lead counsel, Branko Lukic and myself, Dan Ivetic.
4 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
5 Before we start, can all the parties hear the proceedings in a
6 language that they understand?
7 Mr. Sainovic?
8 THE APPELLANT SAINOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour. I can
9 follow.
10 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
11 Mr. Pavkovic.
12 THE APPELLANT PAVKOVIC: [Interpretation] I can follow the
13 proceedings.
14 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much.
15 Mr. Lazarevic.
16 THE APPELLANT LAZAREVIC: [Interpretation] It's all right. I can
17 follow.
18 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
19 Mr. Lukic.
20 THE APPELLANT LUKIC: [Interpretation] I can follow the
21 proceedings, Your Honour.
22 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much.
23 This Status Conference is called in accordance with
24 Rule 65 bis (b) of the Rules of Procedure of Evidence of the Tribunal
25 which requires a Status Conference to be convened every 120 days during
Page 693
1 the appeal proceedings to allow any person in custody pending appeal the
2 opportunity to raise issues in relation thereto including the mental and
3 physical condition of that person.
4 In the present case, the last Status Conference was held on the
5 10th January, 2013. Today's Status Conference was scheduled by an order
6 issued on 17th April 2013. First, I would like to inquire into the
7 status of the detention conditions and the health situation of the
8 appellants. If you have any concerns in relation to the detention
9 conditions or your state of health that cannot be resolved through the
10 standard procedures, I would invite you to raise them now. If you wish,
11 this discussion can take place in private session.
12 Yes, Mr. Lazarevic. Please.
13 THE APPELLANT LAZAREVIC: [Interpretation] Mr. President, thank
14 you for giving me the floor and thus enabling me to point out, very
15 briefly, to the state of my health.
16 Let me first of all say and admit that I always feel unpleasant
17 when I have to speak at Status Conferences and repeat the problems
18 related to my health. But things being what they are, I simply adhere to
19 an old wise saying that we have in Serbia which goes: If there is no
20 reason for me to boast, let me at least complain.
21 I will make use of the opportunity that you gave me. This is the
22 first piece of information. On the 25th of April this year, at the
23 Detention Unit hospital, a surgical intervention was carried out on my
24 body; to be more specific, in the digestive tract. That was the eighth
25 surgical intervention I had to undergo so far. It was a very painful and
Page 694
1 recovering from that operation is still ongoing.
2 The second piece of information has to do with my -- with the
3 health of my oral cavity. In the previous four years, there have been
4 several attempts at relieving my problems by installing five or six
5 protheses but all this was in vein and so were the attempts of the
6 Tribunal's secretariat in the past 12 months to make possible implants in
7 my upper jaw that had to go through the Ministry of Health of the
8 Netherlands and would have been the only solution to my medical problems.
9 However, that plan was given up and I was informed of this fact
10 on the 7th of May by the Detention Unit's dentist who said that she
11 doesn't have approval for implants but that instead she will try to
12 install a new prothesis, which would be number seven, but she didn't say
13 she expected this new one to be better than the previous ones. Casts
14 were made and the procedure has been initiated. After four years of
15 failures and a ruined oral cavity, we're now again at the start with
16 providing medical assistance in the same inefficient manner.
17 I will refrain from any comments as it is up to those in charge
18 to establish what my problems are all about. At least this time I am not
19 going to say that anything that was done intentionally, or, rather, that
20 the failure to help and assist was intentional.
21 And the third piece of information. As for the conclusions of
22 the medical council from June 2012 about my seriously shaken general
23 health and their requests that steps must be taken urgently, I must
24 inform you that so far nothing has been done about all these matters and
25 pursuant to all these suggestions.
Page 695
1 As you know, all these illnesses and health problems are very
2 serious. There is a brain illness, the digestive tract, the urinary
3 tract, the oral cavity, blood vessels are effected; furthermore, there
4 are cognitive problems and others. It is -- it may sound unbelievable
5 but it is still true.
6 I have no further comments and don't wish to continue any longer.
7 Thank you, Mr. President, for listening to me and thank you for your
8 understanding.
9 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much for sharing your health status
10 with me.
11 First of all, I'm sorry that you suffered on that surgical
12 intervention which took place on 25th of April, and I just wish you a
13 speedy recovery from that surgical intervention. Secondly, about your
14 implants of the teeth. I would like to thank you very much for the new
15 information you gave us on the 7th of May that, you know, you need the
16 approval for the implants but that the dentist offered another kind of
17 alternative treatment, and we'll see whether it works or not.
18 And third is about your medical council, I think I could ask the
19 Registrar to look into this matter. I believe that you are entitled to
20 have the regular check-up on your health conditions.
21 Is there anybody else who would like to raise the issues? It
22 seems to me there is none.
23 Before we turn to any issues that the parties may wish to raise,
24 I would like to note that there are currently no motions pending in the
25 present case. At this point, I would like to ask the parties whether
Page 696
1 they have any other issues that they would like to raise.
2 The Prosecution, is there any issues the Prosecution would like
3 to raise?
4 MS. PINZAUTI: Your Honour, we have nothing to raise. Thank you.
5 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much.
6 Now I turn to the counsel for Mr. Sainovic. Do you have any
7 other issues you would like to raise?
8 MR. PETROVIC: No, thank you, Your Honour.
9 JUDGE LIE: Counsel for Mr. Pavkovic, do you have any other
10 issues you would like to raise?
11 MR. ALEKSIC: [Interpretation] No, thank you, Your Honour.
12 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
13 Counsel for Mr. Lazarevic, do you have any other issues you would
14 like to raise?
15 MR. CEPIC: At this moment nothing to raise, Your Honour.
16 JUDGE LIU: Thank you.
17 Counsel for Mr. Lukic, do you have anything other issues you
18 would like to raise?
19 MR. IVETIC: We have nothing to raise at this time, Your Honour.
20 Thank you.
21 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much.
22 Well, this concludes today's Status Conference. I thank the
23 parties for their attendances and adjourn these proceedings now.
24 --- Whereupon the Status Conference
25 adjourned at 3.45 p.m.