Posted on 06/01/2002 12:32:24 AM PDT by Spar
Saturday June 1, 12:00 AM
Prosecution asks for more time in Milosevic trial
The prosecution in the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic asked the UN court for more time to present its case against the former Yugoslav president.
"We would require another two months", prosecutor Geoffrey Nice told the judges.
Legal wrangling over time constraints and sharp exchanges between the prosecution and the trial chamber marked Friday's hearing.
Last week, presiding Judge Richard May told Nice he wanted the prosecution's case for Kosovo wrapped up by July 26th.
Milosevic is charged with more than 60 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the three wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo that tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The first part of his trial, which started in February, deals only with the charges for Kosovo. The indictments from the two other conflicts will be dealt with later in the year.
If the court sticks to the July 26th deadline, Nice told the judges his team would not be able to present evidence on a number of massacres, let alone call important witnesses.
"We respectfully doubt that it would be proper not to seek to prove these killing sites," the prosecutor said.
"I emphasise the importance to finish this trial on time, it is also the credibility of the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) that is the issue," May replied tersely.
After the prosecution outlines its case, Milosevic himself will be given a number of months to present his defence.
May also criticised the prosecution for its selection of witnesses.
"Personally I question how many of them were really necessary," he said.
The judge told Nice that he felt testimony from eyewitnesses and survivors could be more important than the accounts of international observers.
The prosecution recalled the difficulties it had in proving such a big case involving massive violations of international humanitarian law without the testimony of "insider witnesses" from the former president's inner circle.
"A case like this would be easy to prove if a number of insiders would accept to testify" but as such witnesses "get closer to the accused they are much more difficult to reach," Nice said.
The list of witnesses for the Kosovo charges has been dramatically reduced from more than 200 to about 100 with most just reading from a written statement.
On Thursday, a survivor of the Racak massacre had his time in the witness box reduced to five minutes followed by more than an hour devoted to further cross-examination of Milosevic.
The massacre, when 40 ethnic Albanians were allegedly massacred by Serb forces, brought NATO into the conflict.
"This procedure is worrying to me as one of the tribunal's goals is to hear the voices of victims and the confrontation of those suspected of crimes. We get the impression that the case is not presented to the judges," said Richard Decker who is observing the proceedings for Human Rights Watch.
"I am struck by the inflexibility of the judges when it comes to time constraints."
Once the Bosnian and Albanian connection to al-Qaeda was made clear after 9/11, Slobo tore the UN kangaroo court case to bits especially with the US distancing itself from the proceedings now (but the American tax-payer is still paying for most of the thing).
What a load of horsesh*t. The court, unlike CNN and The New York Times, is not a sounding board for hate propaganda.
The "best man" for the job.
Slobodan Milosevic served as best man at the wedding of a fellow
detainee in the detention unit of the United Nations war crimes tribunal,
a tribunal spokesman said May 19, 2002. Milosevic, shown at the Hague
on Feb. 13, took part in the wedding of Bosnian Serb suspect Predrag
Banovic, who has been charged with beating prisoners to death at the
notorious Serb-run Keraterm camp in 1992 and is awaiting trial. Photo by
Paul Vreeker/Reuters
As far as the last two weeks goes.......it has been a complete waste of time for the prosecution......witness after witness is called forth and tells a lurid tale........upon cross the lurid tale is easily shown to be hearsay or utter fantasy.
One may conclude that this endless parade of perjury undermines the prosecution case.
The prosecution doesn't need more time.........it needs a case. Look, in the Kosovo indictment all they need is to prove one war crime. All they needed to do was pick one incident which best proves their case and prove it. It is a standard technique of litigators. Recall that the massive War Criminal Herman Goering was convicted on one single charge....that of ordering the murder of 20 RAF POW's.
In the ICTY case, the Judges have heard lots and lots of hearsay, lots of lurid info, but little or no hard evidence, no forensic testimony, no intercepted phone conversations, nothing.
All this whining on the part of the prosecution that the insiders won't come to testify is simply BS.......Milosevic's closest aides have all stated that they'd be happy to provide testimony....... only problem is that they'd be providing evidence for the defense !!!
Finally, one should note that so far we have only heard the prosecution presentation. The prosecution has set the agenda 100% so far. How bad will it get for the prosecution once the defense starts calling its witness'es ?
I think you are forgetting that some of the evidence has been given in secret, large portions of the transcript are "redacted". I think that means they have been witheld from the public.
Slobo you magnificent bastard!!! You are actually beating the kangaroo court charges!!!
As I predicted he had them beat after the 1st 2 'witnesses'. For a while, I believed all that 'crap' of Milosevic being a 'communist thug', but watching him day in and day out, convinced me that the 'thugs' are the 'prosecution team' and the ICTY.
Milosevic's fluent ability to unmask the 'malicious' prosecution is amazing. It appears to me he has a simple strategy and that is the truth about the 'macro' reasons behind NATO's criminal activity. Even with Judge May sitting on his microphone button, he is winning the day.
Equally amazing is the 'stupidity' of Brits for being the prime mover bulldogging this 'fiasco'.
It looks like Djindjic is raising his payoff demand higher, he must have hired Scott Boras as his Minister of Finances or something.
Is it possible that a mistrial can be declared?
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