Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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1 Friday, 5 March 2004

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 2.15 p.m.

6 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Good afternoon to you all. I open

7 the hearing.

8 Mr. Registrar, would you call the case, please.

9 THE REGISTRAR: Your Honour, Case Number IT-95-9-A, the Prosecutor

10 versus Blagoje Simic.

11 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

12 Mr. Simic, can you follow in a language that you can understand?

13 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.

14 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

15 Would the parties identify themselves, please. May we have the

16 appearances and let's start with the Prosecution.

17 MR. FARRELL: Good afternoon, Your Honour, appearing for the

18 Prosecution is Norman Farrell, Mr. Mathias Marcussen, and our case manager

19 is Ms. Sue Grogan. For the purpose of the Status Conference,

20 Mr. Marcussen will be dealing with it. Thank you.

21 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Farrell.

22 May we have the appearances for the Defence of Mr. Simic.

23 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Mr. President. My

24 name is Igor Pantelic, lawyer from Belgrade, and I represent

25 Dr. Blagoje Simic.

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1 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Pantelic.

2 We are here for a Status Conference. Let me remind you that

3 pursuant to Rule 65 bis (B) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of this

4 Tribunal that we're going to hold a Status Conference, which is to be held

5 within 120 days of the appeal. And then 120 days afterwards to allow the

6 person to be allowed to appeal.

7 The appeal was filed by Mr. Simic on the 17th of November. And it

8 was the -- it is the first Status Conference, in actual fact, to be held

9 in this case. Having said that, we are holding a Status Conference in

10 order to allow the appellant to raise any queries he might have with

11 respect to his conditions of detention or with regard to his health, both

12 physical and mental.

13 Mr. Simic, or rather, Mr. Pantelic, do you have any matters to

14 raise with respect to matters of that type?

15 MR. PANTELIC: Your Honour, personally I am not in a situation to

16 give any particular details regarding the personal state, physical and

17 mental state of my client. Of course he will be able to give more

18 details. On behalf of my Defence team, I would like to just inform you

19 and for the record that my learned friend from the Prosecution and me, we

20 got one conference, short conference, before this hearing regarding the

21 relations of disclosure, and some issues regarding the form of material

22 which might be provided to Defence by the Prosecution in accordance with

23 Rule 68. So maybe later on also my learned friend can give you more

24 information with that regard. But as far as Dr. Simic's status is

25 concerned, I don't have any particular information or complaints regarding

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1 the conditions of detention and his personal and mental state at that

2 time. Thank you.

3 JUDGE GUNEY: [No Interpretation]

4 THE APPELLANT: [No Interpretation]

5 JUDGE GUNEY: [No Interpretation]

6 THE INTERPRETER: Can you hear the English? Can you hear the

7 English interpretation?

8 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] I hear that there was no English

9 interpretation for that last portion. I was having Mr. Simic whether he

10 has anything to add to what he has already said. So could we have your

11 answer again please, Mr. Simic.

12 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] I have nothing further to add,

13 Your Honour, to what my lawyer has already said.

14 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. You may be seated.

15 Now we have -- at this Status Conference, all we can say now is

16 that the accused has become formally the appellant in this appeal case.

17 And, Mr. Simic, I would like to inform you in that respect that

18 your appeal, the appellant brief, is expected within a 30-day deadline

19 after you have received a copy of the judgement in your own language, that

20 is to say in the B/C/S. The Registrar of the International Tribunal has

21 informed the Chamber that the translation will be available in

22 approximate -- or rather, by the 23rd of April, roughly. And I would like

23 to stress, also in that regard, that another motion was filed by

24 Franko Simatovic and that is before this Chamber and is awaiting a ruling.

25 And Franko Simatovic has asked access to the transcripts of

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1 Trial Chamber II, the exhibits, the other documents, and the requests that

2 the parties made in the Bosanski Samac case.

3 [No Interpretation]

4 MR. MARCUSSEN: Thank you, Your Honour. It appears that --

5 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Mr. Marcussen has the floor.

6 It would appear that we're having difficulties again with the

7 interpretation. So this is a technical issue. I hope we're going to be

8 able to resolve it straight away.

9 THE INTERPRETER: Can you hear the English now?

10 MR. MARCUSSEN: Yes, Your Honour.

11 Your Honour, I just wanted to follow up on what my learned

12 colleague said about the discussion that the Defence and the Prosecution

13 had regarding disclosure earlier on this afternoon. So, Your Honours are

14 apprised of the contents of that agreement. The parties have agreed that

15 the Prosecution will carry out a search in the evidence collections

16 relevant to this case, as we normally do. As you're aware, there is a

17 disclosure suite being set up in which a number of documents will be

18 transferred so that the Defence themselves can carry out searches in all

19 this material. The material relevant to this case is not yet in a state

20 where it can be put on to that system. So the Prosecution will do a

21 search the way we normally carry out the searches. We will then sort

22 through the documents that are the result of our searches, so as

23 relevant -- so as to identify the documents that are relevant to the

24 present case.

25 As the Defence has asked for reciprocal disclosure under

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1 Rule 66 (B) in this case, the material that is generated in this way will

2 obviously include material that falls within Rule 66 -- sorry, Rule 68.

3 And we have therefore agreed with the Defence that we will try to sort the

4 material out so that we are in a position to present to the Defence all

5 relevant material. And then the Defence is satisfied that if we provide

6 this material to the Defence, that constitutes disclosure under

7 Rule 66 (B) as well as Rule 68. So that's the contents of the agreement

8 we reached today.

9 I would also like to inform the Court that we expect to be able to

10 make this disclosure to the Defence within the next three to four weeks.

11 I think that is all there is to say about what we have discussed today,

12 just so Your Honour is apprised of that. If you have any questions, we

13 are of course available. Thank you.

14 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Marcussen. As the

15 Defence said, the contacts -- your mutual contacts are underway, and I am

16 happy to hear that the contacts have been productive and constructive,

17 which in the long-term can ensure the speeding up of the proceedings as

18 well as the speedier -- a speedier proceedings.

19 MR. PANTELIC: Your Honour, if I may. As a matter of clarity,

20 maybe my learned friend Mr. Marcussen was not precise with a small detail.

21 In fact, just for the record, I would like to inform you that during the

22 trial phase on behalf of Dr. Simic, his Defence team did not invoke 66 (B)

23 Rule, reciprocal disclosure. So at that time, we don't think that

24 anything should be changed with our position. We are now focused only on

25 possible materials regarding the Rule 68. And with that regard, we shall

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1 do our best with the technical possibilities that we have in our disposal.

2 Of course we shall be in close contact with our learned friends from the

3 Prosecution.

4 The reason why the position of the Defence is, as I stressed with

5 regard to 66 (B), is very simple. During the long-lasting trial, which

6 was -- lasted more than 200 court days, both parties actually presented

7 more than 2.000 exhibits and thousands and thousands of pages of exhibits.

8 So frankly, at this stage, although you never know in criminal proceedings

9 what might arise at one time, at this stage Defence is not in possession

10 of any particular document or exhibit. Of course, if during our search or

11 our activity in appeal stage we will be able to come to certain relevant

12 exhibits or documents, we shall invoke our rights from Rule 115, and

13 accordingly we shall address the trial -- the Appeals Chamber as well as

14 the Office of the Prosecution.

15 So as I said, just for the record the Defence is only focused on

16 Rule 68, and not any kind of obligations with regard to Rule 66 (B). This

17 is a minor matter, so it's just for the record. Thank you.

18 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much, sir. Do you

19 have anything to add on this matter?

20 MR. MARCUSSEN: [Previous translation continues]... with the

21 Defence as to how we're going to do the disclosure will satisfy their

22 needs. And if there's anything that comes up, I'm sure we can resolve it

23 between us. I don't think there's any problem.

24 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Very well. Thank you. We've also

25 noticed that -- this is in the transcript, all of your remarks, and I'm

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1 satisfied to hear that there's no major difficulties between the parties

2 in these proceedings. Since there are no motions by any party, in the

3 absence of these motions I do not have any questions for the parties at

4 this stage of the appeals process. But regardless of that, I would once

5 again like to ask the parties whether they have any remarks or any other

6 questions which they would like to initiate now. Mr. Marcussen go ahead.

7 MR. MARCUSSEN: [Previous translation continues]...

8 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

9 Defence.

10 MR. PANTELIC: No, Your Honour. At this stage we don't have any

11 particular matters to raise. Thank you.

12 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

13 Since there are no other matters that need to be dealt with, this

14 Status Conference can now be concluded. The decision has been made and

15 the Status Conference is concluded. Thank you.

16 ---Whereupon the Status Conference

17 adjourned at 2.35 p.m.

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