THE HAGUE | 10.06.2012.
Next Week at the Tribunal

WILL KARADZIC HAVE ANYTHING TO CONTEST?

After the prosecution rested its case, Radovan Karadzic will call on the judges to acquit him on some or all counts in the indictment that the prosecution failed to prove, in his view. If the judges accept his arguments, Karadzic won’t have to contest those counts in his defense case. The trial of Vojislav Seselj on the third contempt of court indictment will begin on Tuesday. There will be a status conference in the case against Goran Hadzic

At the trial of former Republika Srpska president Radovan Karadzic there will be a hearing under Rule 98 bis of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence. The accused will call on the judges to acquit him on those counts in the indictment that, in his view, have not been proven to a degree that may support a conviction.

The prosecution will respond to the arguments of the accused two days later, on Wednesday, 13 June 2012. The judges will then decide what, if anything, Karadzic will have to contest in his defense case, slated to begin on 16 October 2012. Karadzic is charged in the 11 counts in the indictment with his part in four joint criminal enterprises. The first criminal enterprise is forcible and permanent elimination of non-Serbs from large parts of BH, which reached the scale of genocide in some municipalities. The other three joint criminal enterprises are sniper and artillery terror campaign in Sarajevo, taking UN staff hostage and the genocide in Srebrenica.

The third contempt of court trial of the Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, 12 June 2012. Seselj is on trial because he has repeatedly refused to remove confidential documents disclosing the information about protected prosecution witnesses from his website. This April, Seselj pleaded not guilty and announced his intent to call himself as a witness. Seselj is representing himself and his legal advisor Dejan Mitrovic will examine him. After the examination-in-chief, the judges, who are also acting as the prosecution in this case, will have an opportunity to examine Seselj if they want to. Seselj has already been sentenced to 15 and 18 months in prison respectively at the first and second contempt of court trials.

The third status conference in the case against Goran Hadzic, former prime minister of the SAO Eastern Slavonia and president of the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina, is scheduled for Thursday. Hadzic is indicted in 14 counts for murder, persecution, detaining, torture, inhumane treatment, deportation and wanton destruction in Eastern Slavonia and Croatia from June 1991 to the end of 1993. The hearing will deal with the preparations for the beginning of the trial slated for 16 October 2012.