Rahim Ademi is awaiting a war crimes trial in Croatia, and his defence team includes the two lawyers mentioned above.
The ICTY trial chamber has scheduled a status conference for Friday in the case of the three Croatian generals - Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac - to discuss potential conflict of interest of Markac's lawyer Miroslav Separovic, who may be called to take the witness stand as a former justice minister in the said case and potential conflict of interest of Prodanovic and Slokovic who defend Cermak before the ICTY and are also lawyers for Ademi, who may be called to testify in The Hague.
I do not believe that the duty of cross-examining General Ademi, should he be summoned to appear before the ICTY as a witness, puts my lawyers in conflict of interests, General Cermak wrote in a letter delivered to the Hague tribunal on Thursday.
In his statement, General Ademi said that he had been notified about a possibility that he be called to testify before the ICTY and cross-examined by his lawyers who also defend Cermak before the UN court.
Although I was the chief of Ante Gotovina's staff during the events covered by the ICTY indictment against him and Cermak, I have never discussed with my lawyers events in relation to that period and I do not intend to discuss them as those events are in no way connected with the proceedings launched against me in Croatia, General Ademi wrote in his statement adding that he did not want to testify voluntarily for any party in the trial against Cermak.
Rules of the UN court envisage that the trial chamber may issue a summons for a witness to appear before the court if they do not want to testify voluntarily.
Ademi stresses that his potential testimony would not be an act of conflict of interest for his attorneys.
On Thursday, a day before the status conference on the matter, defence lawyers in the "Gotovina, Cermak and Markac" case could not forecast what the Trial Chamber would decide regarding potential conflict of interest and whether the ICTY decision would mean that Cermak and Markac would not be entitled to lawyers they have chosen.
The issue of potential conflict of interest was raised by the defence lawyers for General Ante Gotovina last autumn when they opposed the tribunal's ruling on the joinder of the case of Gotovina and the case of Cermak and Markac.
Gotovina's lawyers pointed out that Markac's lawyer Separovic may be in conflict of interest should he be called to testify as a former Croatian justice minister. Separovic held the ministerial post at the time covered by Gotovina's indictment.
Gotovina's lawyers also said it was possible that Ademi be called to testify in this process.