No Trials For Generals During Next 6 Months

No Trials For Generals Is True Justice



No Trials For Generals During Next 6 Months

The start of the hearings for Croatian generals is not known, but will certainly not start during the next six months.

Joseph Stedul - Hina

The start of the trials for the Croatian generals Gotovina, Cermak and Markac before the Hague court is not known, but the trials will certainly not start within the next six months, and it could be as long as 12 to 24 months before they start, is the conclusion of the status
conference held in The Hague on Friday.

"It is not known when they will start, but it certainly will not be in the next six months", said judge Bakone Moloto.

It was initially planned that the trials in the case Gotovina, Cermak and Markac start on the 7th May, but before that it was cancelled until further notice, due to a number of unsolved issues, mostly because two of the three accused were left without their entire defence or parts of it.

The status conference started with the usual questions of the judges, asking the accused how they felt. General Ante Gotovina, who was the only one of the three accused present in the courtroom, said that he felt well, and has no complaints about the conditions in custody. Generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac participated in the status conference via video link from the office of the Hague court in Zagreb. Cermak said that he felt very bad.

"I feel very bad because I have been left without my defence lawyers whom I have worked with for nine years, due to a decision of the court", said Cermak, after which judge Bakone Moloto interrupted him, saying that the question was regarding his state of health. "I feel bad in
the emotional way", said Cermak.

Markac said that his state of health is quite damaged, and that his medical team is trying to maintain the present state, or improve it.

The largest part of the pre-trial on Friday was spent on the question of appointing new lawyers for Cermak and Markac, and the possible start of trials and their length.

Markac's lawyer Goran Mikulicic said finding another lawyer that would join him does not happen fast. "All of the lawyers who I have contacted wanted the answer to two questions - when will the trials start, and how long will they last - and I do not know how to answer their questions", said Mikulicic.

He said that he was negotiating with a number of lawyers, and that it would be easier to find a replacement to Markac's former lawyer Miroslav Separovic if the answers to the listed questions were known.

Lawyer Cedo Prodanovic also said that searching for new lawyers for Cermak is not easy.

Judge Bakone Moloto said that the start of the trials depends on if the defence of the accused will be complete, and that the current question reminds him of the question "which came first, the chicken or the egg".

Besides the question of the complete defence, the starting date depends on if there will be a change in procedure against the general of Bosnia and Herzegovina's army, Rasim Delic.

Judge Bakone Moloto is chairperson for the council on that matter, which is scheduled to start on Monday 9th July. However, on Thursday, the prosecution requested that the case be sent to the court in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On Friday, in the discussion of that request, representatives of the prosecution and defence brought forward their arguments, but the court has yet to make a decision.

In the situation that the case be sent to a court in Bosnia, or if the decision is made to have another council decide on the matter, the option would be open to start the trials of Gotovina, Cermak and Markac earlier.

Considering the upcoming summer vacations, and the fact that bringing new lawyers to the case will need around three months, in the best case the trials could start in six months time.

As far as the possible length of the trials is concerned, the defence and prosecution consider that it could end between 12 and 14 months after they start, with the assumption that both sides agree on undisputed facts in order to reduce the size of the case. That period can be lengthened by four months for bringing and writing the verdict, which is a total of up to 18 months, said the judge.

In the issue of the requests by the lawyers of Cermak and Markac, that Gotovina's lawyer Greg Kehoe be dismissed, who worked as a prosecutor in the Hague court, the judge announced that the office of the court will deliver all the documentation regarding Kehoe's accreditation for Gotovina on Monday, and that a decision will be made soon after that.

The lawyer Mikulicic said that this is an unsolved question, because Markac is defending himself from freedom, and during his trial, there will be limits to his public appearances.

The second question was regarding the use of his testimony for the trial which is being led against him in The Hague. Those questions stayed unanswered at the status conference. The lawyers of general Cermak up until now, Cedo Prodanovic and Jadranka Slokovic received an answer from the court saying that they are his defence with full authority up until the moment his new lawyers are
found, unlike Miroslav Separovic, who had to immediately leave Markac's defence because the lawyer Mikulicic was still there.

July 07, 2007