Tribunal Considers Mladic Health, Security Issues
No decision yet on prosecution request to divide case into two trials.
Tribunal Considers Mladic Health, Security Issues
No decision yet on prosecution request to divide case into two trials.
Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic appeared before judges in The Hague this week, in a hearing devoid of the drama that marked his two previous appearances.
On July 4, a defiant Mladic was ejected from the courtroom after repeatedly interrupting judges and refusing to listen to the charges against him. This time, he sat quietly behind his newly appointed defence lawyer, Branko Lukic, and legal consultant Milos Saljic.
The only time Mladic spoke at length – about the state of his health – was in private session. There has been much speculation about his condition, and news recently circulated that he underwent a hernia operation. Court officials would not confirm this, and have declined to discuss his health in public.
Mladic, 69, wore his usual grey suit, looking frail but not markedly different from previous appearances.
When the hearing returned to public session, presiding Judge Alphons Orie noted that Mladic had requested to have his handcuffs removed while he was transferred between the court and the detention unit, also located in The Hague.
The judge noted that transport of defendants between the two locations was the responsibility of the Dutch authorities rather than the court.
Judge Orie went through a number of procedural issues including evidence and document disclosure, the future schedule, and what facts in the indictment the parties could potentially agree upon. He said there would be monthly status conferences, with the next one slated for October 6.
The judge also noted that the bench would not rule on the prosecution’s recent request to split the indictment and conduct two separate trials until the defence filed its response, expected at the end of the month. (See Separate Trial Request for Mladic on this issue.)
Prosecutors are seeking to hold one trial focused solely on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and a second trial for the rest of counts – which include the siege of Sarajevo and crimes committed in various parts of Bosnia. The prosecution has said that holding two trials is in “the interests of justice” and will allow for “better case management in the event of an unforeseen illness, disability or decline in health”.
If there is one lengthy trial and Mladic dies before it is over, judges will not be able to render any verdict at all – which is what happened in the proceedings against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006.
Judge Orie also indicated that the chamber might ask the prosecution to cut some municipalities from the indictment, which he noted had been done in the case of wartime Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, who is currently standing trial at the tribunal.
The indictments against Karadzic and Mladic are nearly identical.
“[We] expect the prosecution to address why municipalities and incidents cut from the Karadzic indictment remain in the Mladic indictment,” the judge said.
Mladic was arrested in Serbia on May 26 after 16 years as a fugitive. As commander of the Bosnian Serb army from 1992 to 1996, he is alleged to have been responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war. These include the Srebrenica massacre, which resulted in the murder of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the 44-month 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 in 23 municipalities across Bosnia.
Mladic is alleged to have been part of a joint criminal enterprise whose purpose was to remove Bosnian Muslims and Croats from Serb-claimed territory in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
