Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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1 Thursday, 17 June 2004

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellant entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 2.30 p.m.

6 JUDGE GUNEY: Good afternoon, all.

7 [Interpretation] Madam Registrar, could you please call the case.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Case Number

9 IT-95-9-A, The Prosecutor versus Blagoje Simic.

10 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. Mr. Simic, can you

11 follow the proceedings in a language that you can understand?

12 Thank you.

13 Appearances for the Prosecution, please.

14 MR. MARCUSSEN: Good afternoon, Your Honour. For the Prosecution,

15 I am Matthias Marcussen appearing with Ms. Barbara Goy and our case

16 manager is Ms. Susan Grogan. Thank you.

17 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you.

18 Appearances for the Defence for Mr. Simic.

19 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour.

20 Mr. Pantelic and my co-counsel who is going to introduce himself.

21 MR. MURPHY: Peter Murphy representing Blagoje Simic. Thank you.

22 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] As far as objective of this Status

23 Conference is concerned, according to the Article 65 bis (B) of the Rules

24 of Procedure and Evidence, a Status Conference has to be held 120 days

25 after the appeal has been raised. And this gives everybody the

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1 possibility to raise their objections and remarks.

2 In this particular case, Mr. Simic filed his appeal on the 17th of

3 November 2003, and the first Status Conference was held on the 5th of

4 March 2004. This new Status Conference has for its goal to allow

5 Mr. Simic to raise issues relative to the conditions of his detention and

6 the condition of his mental and physical health.

7 Mr. Simic or his Defence counsel, could you please advise the

8 Trial Chamber in that particular order. Mr. Simic, you have the floor.

9 THE APPELLANT: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I don't have any

10 health objections or any objections to my conditions of detention in the

11 Detention Unit.

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

13 Does the Defence counsel for Mr. Simic have anything to add to

14 this?

15 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] No, Your Honour. We are satisfied

16 with the condition of our client, and I would like to underline that as

17 his Defence team we have a very good cooperation with the OTP. They have

18 provided us with certain documents relative to Article 68. It is our

19 intention to file our submission today. We have finished our work

20 concerning the appeals procedure. And we are here to help the Registry

21 and our learned friends from the OTP.

22 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you, counsel. We are very

23 pleased to hear about the cooperation that has been taking place between

24 the parties in the best interests of the proceedings that we're dealing

25 with.

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1 And now, as concerns the appeal, we are here to inform the accused

2 of the way the appeal is going. In the B/C/S version of the judgement, we

3 have notified the accused of the date, 19 May 2004, when we're going --

4 that we are going to -- because of that, we have set the deadline tomorrow

5 for the appeals to be filed. But now we have heard that this has already

6 been done. I would also like to say that the request which has been filed

7 by Franko Simatovic who requested access to the documents from the

8 Bosanski Samac case is still before this Chamber. At this moment, I can't

9 tell you anything else about that, but I would like to hear from the

10 parties whether they have any objections or remarks, or do they have any

11 issues to raise? Mr. Marcussen.

12 MR. MARCUSSEN: Your Honour, I'm afraid I have to inform you that

13 we have -- the Prosecution has not received a copy of the request for

14 access to the file. So I'm afraid I'm not in a position to answer your

15 question. As soon as we get back, we will look and see if we have

16 received the documents. But, no, and I don't think we have received it.

17 So we will check up on that with the Registry, and we can return to the

18 Court quickly with an answer, I'm sure. I'm sorry about that. Thank you.

19 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. I hope you're

20 going to be able to check the matter and inform us of your conclusions.

21 I'm now turning towards the Defence, Mr. Pantelic.

22 MR. PANTELIC: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour. As far as the

23 position of the Defence is concerned, we can inform you that we do not

24 have any objections to this particular request. That is our position.

25 Thank you very much.

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1 JUDGE GUNEY: [Interpretation] Thank you. If there are no other

2 issues to raise, the Status Conference may be adjourned at this point. It

3 has been so decided.

4 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned

5 at 2.40 p.m.

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