Appeals Chamber Rules on Ojdanic Documents

Ojdanic, a former chief of staff of the Yugoslav army, is charged with involvement in a violent campaign against Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian population during this period, which eventually came to an end following NATO air strikes.



In November last year, trial judges ordered NATO and the governments of Canada, Iceland, Luxembourg and the United States to hand over records of certain communications intercepted in Yugoslavia at the time, so that Ojdanic could use them in preparing his defence case.



NATO subsequently asked for the order to be overturned, arguing that the alliance itself had no capacity to gather intelligence and that any such material in its possession remained under the control of its member states.



In a ruling issued on May 15, the appeals judges found in favour of this argument and said that NATO should not be required to hand over records of the kind in question.



An earlier decision by the appeals chamber, issued on May 12, also found in favour of arguments offered by the United States in opposition to the order to hand over intelligence.



In that case, too, the judges said the order could not apply to material which had come into Washington’s possession from a third party. In addition, they also agreed with the United States that Ojdanic had failed to make enough efforts to resolve the issue through negotiations prior to asking judges to intervene in the matter.



The appeals chamber invited Ojdanic and Washington to resume talks on the voluntary handover of the intelligence material in question.