Mladic Lawyers Dispute Use of "Established Facts"
Defence argues that facts established in earlier trials should not be accepted in current case.
Mladic Lawyers Dispute Use of "Established Facts"
Defence argues that facts established in earlier trials should not be accepted in current case.
Lawyers for ex-Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic have asked for permission to appeal against a decision that took “judicial notice” of facts previously established in other cases at the Hague tribunal.
It has become standard for prosecutors to ask for facts that have already been established in previous trials to be accepted in a new case, if it covers the same crimes or geographical area.
Judges may either grant or deny this request based on a number of factors, including whether the facts in question have become “common knowledge”. In addition, the facts cannot relate to the “acts, conduct and mental state” of the accused or differ substantially from the actual judgement in the case in which they were first heard.
Mladic’s lawyers argued in a March 14 filing that some of the facts that judges have accepted in his trial do relate to the “alleged acts and conduct” of the accused, in that certain acts were committed by Mladic’s direct subordinates.
In addition, Mladic’s lead lawyer Branko Lukic argued, the chamber has incorrectly “reformulated” some of the facts so that they now differ substantially from the original judgement.
“The admission of these proposed facts significantly affects the fairness of the proceedings, as it has now shifted the burden of rebuttal to the defence on issues central to the prosecution’s case,” Lukic stated.
The bench will now decide whether to grant the leave to appeal.
Mladic’s trial is due to commence in The Hague on May 14.
The former general, 69, was arrested in Serbia last May after 16 years as a fugitive. He was commander of the Bosnian Serb army from 1992 to 1996, and is alleged to have been responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war.
These include the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, which resulted in the murder of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the shelling and sniping campaign against Sarajevo, which killed about 12,000 civilians.
He is also charged with crimes of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer. The indictment against him was reduced this past December at the judges’ request, and it now deals with a total of 106 crimes instead of 196, and the number of Bosnian municipalities involved has been cut from 23 to 15.
The core elements of the case – the siege of Sarajevo, the massacre at Srebrenica, crimes committed in various municipalities, and the taking of United Nations hostages – remain the same, and the indictment still contains 11 counts.
The prosecution has stated that it intends to call a total of 410 witnesses, 158 of whom are expected to appear in court.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
