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Although the Hague Tribunal announced at the beginning of December last year that the trial might begin in late March this year, the beginning of the trial has been postponed in order to let the Defence and Hague Prosecution have additional time for trial preparation.
Besides that, the postponement will provide the Defence with additional time to prepare itself for the cross-examination of Prosecution witnesses, who will testify at the beginning of the trial, the decision rendered by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY says.
On February 10 Mladic’s Defence requested the Court to postpone the beginning of the trial until October this year, but the ICTY Chamber determined that the Defence might be ready for the beginning of the trial even prior to that date.
The Hague Prosecution announced that, during the presentation of evidence it would include 27,906 pieces of material evidence in the case file and invite 158 witnesses to testify before the Trial Chamber. The Prosecution said that it would need about 200 working hours for this.
Mladic, who was arrested in May last year after being on the run for years, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and the violation of the laws and customs of war committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995. Mladic had his initial appearance before the ICTY judges on June 3, 2011.
The decision made by the ICTY judges says that the Chamber does not think that it should limit the number of working hours per week due to Mladic’s health condition.
The next pre-trial status conference in Mladic’s case is scheduled for March 29, 2012.D.Dz.
