140724SC

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1 Thursday, 24 July 2014

2 [Status Conference]

3 [Open session]

4 [The appellants entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 9.28 a.m.

6 JUDGE AGIUS: So good morning everybody.

7 Madam Registrar, could you kindly call the case please.

8 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honour. This is case

9 IT-08-91-A, the Prosecutor versus Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin.

10 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

11 As first and foremost, I just want to make sure that all the

12 parties can follow the proceedings in a language that they understand.

13 I call on Mr. Stanisic. Mr. Stanisic, are you able to follow the

14 proceedings in a language that you understand?

15 THE APPELLANT STANISIC: [Interpretation] Yes, I'm able. Thank

16 you, Your Honour.

17 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

18 Mr. Zupljanin, same question. Are you able to follow the

19 proceedings in a language that you understand?

20 THE APPELLANT ZUPLJANIN: [Interpretation] The same answer. Yes

21 I'm able, thank you.

22 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

23 Let's move to appearances.

24 Prosecution.

25 MR. SCHNEIDER: Good morning Your Honour and everyone in the

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1 courtroom. Todd Schneider on behalf of the Prosecution, along with

2 Ms. Laurel Baig and Mr. Colin Nawrot.

3 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

4 Counsel for Mr. Stanisic.

5 MR. BOURGON: Good morning, Mr. President. Good morning to

6 everyone in the courtroom. Representing Mr. Stanisic this morning,

7 Relja Radovic, Legal Assistant, and myself Stephane Bourgon.

8 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you, Mr. Bourgon.

9 Appearance for Mr. Zupljanin.

10 MR. KRGOVIC: Good morning, Mr. President, and everyone in

11 courtroom. Dragan Krgovic appearing for Zupljanin Defence.

12 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you. And you are alone? Yes. Okay. Thank

13 you.

14 This Status Conference is called in accordance with Rule 65 bis

15 of the Tribunal's Rules of Procedure and Evidence. Rule 65 bis,

16 paragraph (B), requires a Status Conference to be convened within 120

17 days after the filing of a Notice of Appeal and thereafter within 120

18 days after the last Status Conference. This is to allow any person in

19 custody pending appeal the opportunity to raise issues in relation

20 thereto, including issues relating to the mental and physical condition

21 of that person.

22 In the present case, the parties filed their Notices of Appeal on

23 13th May 2013, and the first Status Conference was held on 4th September

24 2013. The second and third Status Conferences were held on 11 December

25 2013 and 9th April 2014 respectively. Today's Status Conference is the

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1 fourth in this case and was scheduled by an order issued on 3rd June

2 2014.

3 I will deal first with matters relating to detention conditions

4 and the health, physical or mental, of Mr. Stanisic and Mr. Zupljanin.

5 First I would like to inquire into the status of the detention

6 conditions and health situations of Mr. Stanisic.

7 Mr. Stanisic, if you have any concerns in relation to the

8 condition of your detention or the state of your health, I would invite

9 you to raise them now. If you prefer, this discussion can take place in

10 private session.

11 THE APPELLANT STANISIC: [Interpretation] No need for that,

12 Your Honours. I have no concerns to raise. Thank you.

13 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you, Mr. Stanisic.

14 Turning to Mr. Zupljanin. Mr. Zupljanin, same question. If you

15 have any concerns in relation to your detention conditions or your state

16 of health, I would invite you to raise them now. And as I told

17 Mr. Stanisic, if you would prefer this discussion can take place in

18 private session.

19 Mr. Zupljanin.

20 THE APPELLANT ZUPLJANIN: [Interpretation] No concerns,

21 Your Honours. Everything is already well known. Not much happening.

22 Thank you.

23 JUDGE AGIUS: Okay. Thank you. I'm glad to hear that.

24 I will now go through some information which I'm sure you all

25 know, but one of the purposes also of a Status Conference is to inform

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1 people outside this Tribunal of what is happening in any particular case.

2 So before we turn to any issue that the parties may wish to

3 raise, I would like to recall the recent procedural history of this case.

4 While it is important for the public to be aware of the background of the

5 case, given the number of filings and decisions so far, I will only focus

6 today on the motions filed and decisions issued since the last

7 Status Conference which was held on the 9th of April of this year. For

8 this purpose, I will recall filings prior to 9th April to the extent

9 necessary only.

10 As a preliminary matter with regard to the composition of the

11 Appeals Chamber seized of the present case, I recall that on the 15th of

12 April 2014, Judge Theodore Meron, president of this Tribunal, appointed

13 Judge William Sekule to replace him on the Bench. Subsequently, having

14 been elected as Presiding Judge, I designated myself Pre-Appeal Judge in

15 the present case on the 2nd of May of this year.

16 On the 27th of June 2014, Judge Theodore Meron appointed

17 Judge Koffi Kumelio Afande to replace Judge Liu Daqun on the Bench.

18 Turning to recent decisions. I recall that on the 2nd of July of

19 2014 Mr. Stanisic filed a motion pursuant to Rule 115 of the Rules of

20 Procedure and Evidence seeking the admission, as additional evidence on

21 appeal, of excerpts from a letter written by Judge Frederick Harhoff on

22 the 6th of June 2013. The Appeals Chamber rendered its decision on

23 14th April 2014, granting Mr. Stanisic's motion and admitting the letter

24 in its entirety.

25 On the 1st of May 2014, the Prosecution filed a motion pursuant

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1 to Rule 115(A) of the Rules in which it sought to admit three documents

2 as rebuttal material. The Appeals Chamber granted that motion on the

3 11th of June 2014.

4 On the 2nd of July 2013, Mr. Stanisic also filed a motion seeking

5 leave to amend his Notice of Appeal. The Appeals Chamber granted the

6 motion in a decision delivered on 14th April 2014. Pursuant to that

7 decision, on the 23rd of April 2014 Mr. Stanisic filed an amended Notice

8 of Appeal with amended grounds of appeal as 4 and 10 and an additional

9 ground of appeal 1bis.

10 Similarly, on 14th April 2014, the Appeals Chamber granted

11 Mr. Zupljanin's second motion to amend his Notice of Appeal filed on

12 9th September 2013. Mr. Zupljanin subsequently filed an amended Notice

13 of Appeal with an additional ground of appeal 6 on the 22nd of April

14 2014.

15 In its decision of 14th April 2014, the Appeals Chamber set out a

16 supplemental briefing schedule for the filing of additions to the appeal

17 briefs of Mr. Stanisic and Mr. Zupljanin as well as any responses and

18 replies.

19 On the 17th of April 2014, the Prosecution filed an urgent motion

20 requesting variation of the supplemental briefing schedule in view of its

21 intention to seek the admission of rebuttal material. The

22 Appeals Chamber granted the motion on the 2nd of May 2014, and

23 subsequently Mr. Stanisic and Mr. Zupljanin filed additions to their

24 appeal briefs on the 26th of June 2014, and the Prosecution filed a

25 consolidated response on 18th July 2014.

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1 I note that any replies are due to be filed by tomorrow, that is,

2 Friday, the 25th of July.

3 The most recent decision in this case was issued confidentially

4 on the 13th of July 2014. In that decision, the Appeals Chamber granted

5 a confidential motion filed by the Prosecution on 13th May 2014 for the

6 replacement of certain public documents with redacted versions.

7 Finally, we come to the motions currently pending before this

8 Appeals Chamber. First, we have a motion filed by Mr. Stanisic on the

9 10th of April 2014. In it, Mr. Stanisic seeks the reconsideration of a

10 decision issued by the Appeals Chamber on the 2nd of April 2014 in which

11 the Appeals Chamber dismissed his motion for mistrial and Mr. Zupljanin's

12 motion to vacate the trial judgement.

13 I can inform the parties that work on the decision is practically

14 finished, and I hope that the decision will be issued very, very shortly.

15 Secondly, we have a motion filed confidentially by the

16 Prosecution on 6th June 2014 requesting a public redacted version of a

17 decision issued by the trial chamber during the trial proceedings in this

18 case. Again, work on this motion is pretty much advanced and we will

19 issue our decision on it in due course.

20 Having given this information I move to the next and basically

21 the final part of the Status Conference, and I turn my attention to the

22 Prosecution and ask you whether -- if you have any particular issues you

23 would like to raise?

24 MR. SCHNEIDER: No thank you, Your Honour.

25 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you, Mr. Schneider.

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1 Counsel for Mr. Stanisic?

2 MR. BOURGON: Good morning, Mr. President. I would just like to

3 say one small point this morning.

4 An issue was brought to my attention at the beginning of the

5 Status Conference that in the additional appellant's brief filed on

6 behalf of Mr. Stanisic, there was a reference to a three-page letter, and

7 apparently we used the wrong version of that letter. So we will be

8 filing a corrigendum just to ensure that all parties are speaking from

9 the same version of the letter --

10 JUDGE AGIUS: Okay.

11 MR. BOURGON: -- which is the one that is uploaded in e-court.

12 JUDGE AGIUS: All right.

13 MR. BOURGON: Nothing else to report, Mr. President. Thank you

14 very much.

15 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you. I hadn't noticed that as yet. So I

16 thank you very much for bringing it to our attention and I appreciate you

17 acting on it as soon as you can. Thank you very much.

18 Counsel for Mr. Zupljanin?

19 MR. KRGOVIC: We have nothing, Your Honour.

20 JUDGE AGIUS: Yes. Nothing. Okay. Thank you.

21 Mr. Stanisic, you've heard your lawyer say that apart from the

22 small issue that he raised has got nothing else to say. Do you have

23 anything to point out or raise before -- before me before we conclude?

24 THE APPELLANT STANISIC: [Interpretation] No, Your Honour. Thank

25 you.

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1 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

2 Mr. Zupljanin, same question to you.

3 THE APPELLANT ZUPLJANIN: [Interpretation] The same answer, Your

4 Honour. Nothing.

5 JUDGE AGIUS: Thank you.

6 That brings to an end today's Status Conference.

7 Just to update you on the progress that is being -- that is

8 happening. We have the drafting team, more or less, complete, and we

9 have been working on these appeals, et cetera. Naturally, with the new

10 grounds of appeals, there is a section which we had not yet been studying

11 but we will be studying that. There are going to be some changes in

12 the -- in the staffing of the drafting team, in the membership of the

13 drafting team, which are being attended to.

14 I have to be quite frank with you: Don't expect the hearing any

15 time this year. It won't happen this year, but it will happen next year,

16 of course. And the case has to be finished next year. And we are

17 working hard, but I hope in the next Status Conference I should be in the

18 position to give you some more information. You know what the procedure

19 is, we prepare first what we call a prep doc for ourselves which will

20 serve as the basis for updating all the Judges for the purpose of the

21 hearing, and later on we then start drafting the judgement itself. But

22 that is going to take some time and there are some organisational issues

23 that have to be attended to.

24 Okay. Thank you very much and have a good day.

25 --- Whereupon the Status Conference adjourned

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1 at 9.46 a.m.