Posted on 04/18/2002 3:51:47 PM PDT by Spar
Thursday April 18, 1:29 AM
Del Ponte rejects time-limit on Milosevic prosecution
The chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal that is trying former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic said she hoped to appeal a decision by the court judges to curtail the time allotted to the prosecution to make its case.
Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said the judges' ruling that the prosecution, which is making the complex case against Milosevic on no less than 66 charges, had to wind up its case by April 10 next year would cause an "incurable prejudice" to the trial.
"It is apparent that if the prosecution is forced to present its case within an unreasonable period of time, the only possible consequence is that the quality of the prosecution's case will suffer, which, in turn, will impact on the quality of the Chamber's final decision," she said in a statement.
On April 10 last week the three judges ruled that the prosecution had to wind up the presentation of its case within a year.
The prosecution says that if holidays, adjournments and above all the lengthy cross-examining of prosecution witnesses by Milosevic -- who is assuring his own defence -- are taken into account, the ruling leaves only around 100 days for the prosecutors to present their case.
The 66 charges against Milosevic relate to three separate armed conflicts, in Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and, most recently, in Kosovo.
The prosecutor's application to appeal the ruling has to be examined by a panel of judges working for the court, which is known officially as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
If Del Ponte is given leave to appeal, the case will then be examined by a separate chamber of the tribunal.
It is not the first time that Del Ponte has been in conflict with the three ICTY judges in charge of the Milosevic case.
At the start of the proceedings on February 12 this year, she successfully appealed the judges' decision to split the trial into two, one devoted to Kosovo and the other to Bosnia and Croatia.
Last Wednesday, announcing his decision to put a time-limit on the prosecution, presiding judge Richard May explained that the longer the trial took the more difficult it would become for Milosevic to defend himself, and for the trial chamber to reach a judgement.
Bin Laden loves people like you, you're playing right in to his hands.
| KLA |
| KOSOVO |
| MACEDONIA |
| NATO |
| SERBIA |
| YUGOSLAVIA |
She either has a case, at present, or she does not. If she has one, present it with all despatch, if not, admit the same, and drop the charges...
the infowarrior
Del Ponte, has to date, produced 20+ witnesses, none of them credible to the indictment. They haven't put a dent in Milosevic and were the 'trial' 'rained out'now, Milosevic would be exonerated of all charges and compensated.
Statistically if they had their 300 witnesses, they still would have no case. The 'trial' should be dismissed now.
I am confused about the new running order of the 'trial', and as someone who follows things pretty closely I can't be alone in this. As far as I was aware, the trial is now in 3 parts - Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia. The Prostitution, oops, sorry, Prosecution, is going to present its 'evidence' on each and then Milosevic will present his defence on each.
But from what Judge May said last week it sounded as though there would only be the delivery of one verdict.
``We have decided that the prosecution should have one year from today to conclude the case,'' May said. ``No prosecution case should continue longer than that.''
Are they just talking about Kosovo? (I don't think so.) Does that include Milosevic's time for calling witnesses? 3 separate cases can't be presented in tandem before the verdict(s).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.