Kondic: Unable to Follow Trial

In her findings and opinion she said that Kondic, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, demonstrates “a pronounced tendency towards a deteriorating state of health state, accompanied by dementia, emotional instability and depression”. 
 
“The examinee is bedridden. He is not able to control his needs and he cannot eat or put his clothes on without help. Considering the type of the disease, it is not realistic to expect him to be able to attend the trial. Besides that, there is no adequate accommodation for him in the Detention Unit of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” court expert Suljic said.
 
As stated by this witness, considering the degenerative nature of Parkinson’s disease, “it is really not possible to expect any improvement of his state of health in the future”. 
 
The trial of Vinko Kondic, former Chief of the Public Safety Station and member of the Crisis Committee in Kljuc, Marko Adamovic and Bosko Lukic began in September 2008. Kondic was in custody from December 2007 to September 2010, after which he was allowed to defend himself while at liberty under certain prohibiting measures. 
 
The Prosecution charges the three men individually with having participated in organizing a group of people and abetting their commission of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Kljuc municipality during the course of 1992. 
 
Due to Kondic’s illness, the trial has been interrupted frequently from the very beginning. The indictee often failed to appear in the courtroom, claiming he was not sufficiently capable of attending the hearings. Kondic’s Defence said several times that their client was not capable of attending the trial due to his poor state of health, but the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina objected to this explanation.
 
As per a proposal made by the indictees’ Defence teams the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina separated Kondic’s case from the case against Lukic and Adamovic in September this year.  
 
At this hearing Prosecutor Dzemila Begovic asked court expert Suljic if Kondic’s health state could be described as a mental illness. Suljic responded by saying it could not be classified as such, despite the fact he suffered from “dementia and problems with memory, judgment and reasoning”.
 
For these reasons Prosecutor Begovic asked the Court to approve “an additional expert assessment of indictee Kondic’s health state”, considering the fact that the Law on Criminal Proceedings of Bosnia and Herzegovina “stipulates that a trial can be discontinued only if the indictee suffers from a mental illness”. 
 
The Law on Criminal Proceedings of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates that the Court can discontinue proceedings and refer the indictee to a competent social care institution if the indictee, after having committed a crime, suffers from a mental illness which makes him incapable of following the trial.
 
The Defence objected to the proposal, while the Trial Chamber said it would render its decision concerning the proposal and the eventual discontinuation of the trial against Vinko Kondic at a later stage.

 D.Dž.