Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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.


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 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


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 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.


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 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


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 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.