Mladic Defence Not Allowed to File Evidence Appeal

Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Tuesday rejected a request filed by Mladic’s defence lawyers asking the court to reconsider its decision that the defence’s evidence presentation concluded last month.

Mladic’s defence lawyers Branko Lukic and Miodrag Stojanovic argued that, contrary to regulations, the Trial Chamber declared the presentation of defence’s evidence completed on August 16, despite the fact they intended to present the judges with two more witnesses.
Hakija Meholjic, who used to be the chief of police in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war, was one of those potential witnesses.

After the war Meholjic said that Alija Izetbegovic, former leader of the Party of Democratic Action, and chairman of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, “sacrificed” Srebrenica in order to provoke a NATO intervention against the Bosnian Serbs.

Mladic’s defence said Meholjic’s testimony “could have had a particularly important influence on the outcome of the trial, because he has important evidence material” about the allegation that former Bosnian Serb military chief Mladic was responsible for the Srebrenica genocide.

The defence also argued that it had still not used 30 working hours out of the total court time allocated to it by the judges.

The defence lawyers said the judges had failed to provide a proper explanation of their decision to declare the evidence presentation complete despite the defence’s objections.

But the trial chamber ruled that this was not enough to reconsider the decision or allow the defecse to appeal against it.

The judges maintained that they had provided sufficient explanation of their decision already.
Although they said that Meholjic’s potential testimony was not a reason to reconsider their decision, the judges said they would make a decision on a separate defence motion regarding this subject “in the near future”.

Mladic is on trial for genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in several other municipalities, terrorising the population of Sarajevo citizens and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

The indictment charges Mladic with five counts of persecution, extermination, murders, deportations and forcible resettlement, as well as crimes against humanity. Mladic has also been charged, under an additional five counts, with murder, terror, unlawful attacks against civilians and taking hostages, as well as violation of the laws and customs of war.

Prior to the completion of the proceedings, the prosecution and defence have still to file their closing written motions by October 25 and present their closing statements in the period from December 5 to 15.

The prosecution completed the presentation of its evidence against Mladic in February 2014. The defence’s evidence presentation lasted from May 2014 to August 16 this year.

According to the Hague Tribunal’s timetable, the first-instance verdict should be pronounced by November 2017.