ICTY: Tolimir’s “obstructive behaviour”

At the fourth pre-trial status conference in the case of Zdravko Tolimir, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, warned the indictee that further obstruction to the proceedings would result in the appointment of a legal representative.

The Pre-Trial Chamber ordered Tolimir to change his “obstructive behaviour” by July 4 and accept the documents, which the Tribunal is sending him. Otherwise, he will be deprived of the right to represent himself.

The Hague Prosecution considers that Tolimir, former deputy commander for intelligence and safety affairs of the General Staffs of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is responsible for the genocide, extermination, murder, persecution,forcible displacement and deportation of Bosniaks from Srebrenica and Zepa areas.

He was arrested in Bratunac municipality on May 31, 2007. He was transferred to the Tribunal at The Hague on June 1, 2007.

Since July 2007 Tolimir has refused to accept the documents, provided to him, explaining that those documents were not written in the Cyrillic scripts and “pure Serbian language” and arguing that he “cannot read or understand” the texts written in Latin scripts. As announced at this hearing, he refused to accept the audio material for the same reasons. In December 2007 the Pre-Trial Chamber dismissed the indictee’s request. The decision was confirmed by the Appellate Chamber in March and June 2008.

“It has been nearly a year since the arrest and we have not made any progress in terms of preparing the case in order to start the trial. Your continuing refusal of documents, which has lasted for a year, despite the Tribunal’s decision’s, represents a rather persistent obstruction to the proceedings,” judge Kimberly Prost said.

Prost said that the right to a self-representation is “not absolute” and it can be dismissed in case the indictee “obstructs the expeditious conduct of the trial.”

“It is obvious that your behaviour is obstructive to the course of the trial. This is your last chance. Until you have made up your mind concerning the documents, we do not have any other topics or issues to discuss. Today we have to solve the language issue for good,” Prost said.

The judge allowed Tolimir to speak about the conditions in the detention unit or his health state, which the indictee neglected on two occasions, giving further comments concerning the language issue.

“I want the record to show that the indictee is prohibited from saying anything about the case. I am not ignoring the Court’s decisions now. I havenot ignored them so far. Instead, I have acted in accordance with the Rule Book, which indicates that the indictee has the right to use his own language and is entitled to have an interpreter. The documents, which have been given to me, are not written in my native language. The language in which the Court is addressing me is not my native language either,” Tolimir said.

Prost did not allow the indictee or his legal representative, Aleksandar Gajic, who appeared at the hearing, to present any further arguments concerning this issue, claiming that those remarks have been entered into the official records several times already.