Bosnian General Delic Could Be Tried in Sarajevo

A last minute request for the transferral of the case against Bosnian Army general Rasim Delic to the state court in Sarajevo has been filed by the prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Thursday, Justice Report has learnt.

The motion comes only days before the scheduled commencement of the trial on July 9 whose postponement was also requested by the chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

Only hours after the motion was filed, the Trial Chamber dismissed the request for the postponement of the commencement of the trial.

The indictment filed in 2005 charges Delic, with failing to prevent or punish the perpetrators of crimes committed by the Army of BiH against Bosnian Croats and Serbs in the villages of Maline and Bikasi near Travnik and in Kamenica camp near Zavidovici respectively. He is also charged with not undertaking the necessary measures to prevent and punish the perpetrators of rape of three women in Kamenica camp.

According to information available to the Justice Report, Prosecutor Del Ponte has decided to submit this request after the Tribunal’s Trial Chamber imposed restrictions on its presentation of the case.

The decision limited the number of witnesses that the Prosecution can invite to 55 and the number of hours for presentation of the case to 170.

According to the motion, the request for the referral came at the last minute as the restrictions were imposed only a week before the scheduled commencement of the trial.

On the basis of this the prosecutor determined she would be unable to proceed with the allegation of the murder of 24 men and women in the village of Bikosi on June 8, 1993.

This means that the case against Delic would have to be limited to the crimes which took place in Kamenica camp near Zavidovici.

However, in a swift reaction to the filed motion the Trial Chamber said Del Ponte’s motion “was not the appropriate manner for the Prosecution to express its objection to the Trial Chamber’s decision” and that the suspension of the trial “would not be in the interest of justice”.

The Trial Chamber furthermore said that its decision about the number of witnesses and available hours did not prevent the Prosecutor from presenting arguments to prove all allegations included in the indictment, including the crimes committed in Maline and Bikosi.

“The Prosecution is at liberty to chose which witnesses … it wishes to include as part of its case,” the decision reads. “The Trial Chamber finds no reason why witnesses who will testify as to events at Bikosi/Maline should not be included among these witnesses.”