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Following a status conference, the Trial Chamber has determined that the trial of Radoje Lalovic and Soniboj Skiljevic, who are charged with crimes against humanity committed in the Kula Correctional Facility in Sarajevo, will begin on March 2.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Lalovic, the former manager of Kula, and Skiljevic, his deputy, with having “supervised the detention conditions and determined the daily regime for detainees” in the Kula Facility, which “functioned as a detention camp”, from May to December 1992.
The indictment alleges that detainees lived in poor conditions and were exposed to mistreatment. They were taken to other locations, where they performed forced labour. The Prosecution considers that the indictees “knew or should have known” that their subordinates took detainees to unknown locations, where they killed them.
At the status conference the Defence said it would examine 54 witnesses and present more than 500 pieces of material evidence, which it calculated would require “about 30 working days”.
Refik Serdarevic, Defence attorney of Lalovic, said that he could not yet confirm how many witnesses would be examined. He said he would be able to provide this information “on the basis of the Prosecution’s evidence presentation”.
Fahrija Karkin, Defence attorney for the second indictee, said he would examine 49 witnesses and present 17 pieces of material evidence. He said he thought this would require 32 working days. Karkin added that Skiljevic’s defence would “be based on providing him with an alibi”.
On behalf of both Defence teams, Karkin asked the Trial Chamber to revise the current prohibiting measures, ordered by the Court instead of custody in November 2008. These measures include, among other things, a ban on the indictees leaving their places of residence.
“We are not able to meet our clients. This particularly relates to the first indictee, who lives in Bijeljina. We call upon the Court to allow our clients to visit us one day prior to hearings. All our meetings would be held in my office,” Karkin said.
In addition, Serdarevic proposed that the Court allow Lalovic to stay overnight in Sarajevo prior to each hearing.
The Court will render a decision concerning this issue at a later stage.
