²¹⁶

Friday, 15 July 2005

[Status Conference]

(Open session)

[The accused entered court]

--- Upon commencing at 2.34 p.m.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Good afternoon to everybody. I shall ask Mr. Registrar to call the case.

THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. This is case, IT-00-41-PT, the Prosecutor versus Pasko Ljubicic.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you. Can we have the appearances? Starting with the Prosecution, please.

MR. HARMON: Good afternoon, Judge and counsel. My name is Mark Harmon. I represent the Office of the Prosecutor.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you. And for the Defence?

MR. JONJIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour. I'm Tomislav Jonjic. I represent the accused Pasko Ljubicic.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Jonjic. Mr. Ljubicic, can you hear me in a language that you understand?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I can hear you and I can understand you.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. Please sit down.

I am telling the parties that we are now having a Status Conference with a view to settling two pending issues. The first issue is the application by the Defence for provisional release. The Trial ²¹⁷ Chamber was seized of an application dated 5th of July 2005, in which the Defence repeated their arguments in order to apply for provisional release.

This is what I'd like to ask you, Mr. Jonjic. Can you confirm that I understood properly: You apply either for provisional release or for changes to be made to the detention conditions, or do you only apply for provisional release?

MR. JONJIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, the Defence has requested the Trial Chamber for Mr. Ljubicic to be provisionally released. He is an accused that has spent most time in the detention unit during the pre-trial stage. However, if the Chamber is of the opinion that this request should not be granted, then alternatively, the Defence would like to request for the detention conditions to be changed and for Mr. Ljubicic to be placed under house arrest in Mostar. Thank you very much.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. Therefore, you have a main request, if I got you right, and then a secondary request, or an alternative one. Let me now address the Prosecution. Mr. Harmon, I thought that you were going to file your response today with the Trial Chamber. Wasn't it the deadline that you had committed to, to answer the latest application for provisional release?

MR. HARMON: We will do that today, Your Honour.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Would you be able to give me a quick estimate or a rough sketch of your position or would you rather just put it in writing? ²¹⁸

MR. HARMON: We will certainly put it in writing, Your Honour. We also oppose the application. It is our position that nothing has changed in respect of the previous judgement with the exception that Mr. Ljubicic has been held in custody for a period of time. That is the only thing that has changed. None of the risk factors that were cited by the Court in its denial of Mr. Ljubicic's previous application have changed. And therefore, we will articulate that more fully in the written submission that we file today.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Very well. Are you going to include in your submissions your position regarding the changes to be made to detention conditions?

MR. HARMON: I believe we will, Your Honour. What I am prepared to do is request certainly that there be oral submissions to the full panel. That is I think is important. I made that indication at the Rule 65 conference this morning. So we would be making a request to have the Bench, the Trial Chamber, hear the oral submissions.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Well, I can convey to you my impression in very few words. I think would be more suitable for you to file submissions as soon as possible, to file them as soon as possible. I grant you until Tuesday, next Tuesday, to state all the points or meet all the points that you wish in which case the full Bench could make a decision in full cognition of the whole situation.

MR. HARMON: I accept that, Your Honour. Thank you.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. Do the parties have other requests? Do they have other questions ²¹⁹ to raise? Prosecutor?

MR. HARMON: No, Your Honour, thank you.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you. What about the Defence?

MR. JONJIC: [Interpretation] No, Your Honour. We don't have any issues to raise at this moment.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you. Mr. Ljubicic, I'd like to ask you how you are, how is your health? First, would you like us to move into private session? Or can we discuss this issue in open session?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] We can stay in open session. There is no need for us to go into closed session. My health condition is good. I don't have any objections to the health care that I'm provided, or to the conditions of my stay in the detention units.

JUDGE EL MAHDI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. I'm glad to hear that. Thank you. Please sit down.

Well, I believe I can now wait until Tuesday so that Mr. Harmon can file his response to the application for provisional release, and also his response to changes to be made, possibly, to detention conditions. I think that this brings this status conference to an end. Thank you.

--- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 2.44 p.m.