This was Gotovina's first appearance before the ICTY, after his initial hearing on 12 December 2005 when he entered his plea.
Maltese judge Carmel Agius asked Gotovina about his physical and mental health and the defendant said he has no problems or objections to his stay in the ICTY detention unit.
Under the ICTY regulations, the status conference must be held every 120 days so as to enable the defendant and the prosecution to discuss issues regarding the proceedings.
Today's status conference focused on the current submission by the prosecution and the defence and deadlines concerning those submissions. Also discussed was the prosecution's obligation to forward material regarding the indictment to the defence team.
Gotovina's attorney Misetic requested additional time for preliminary objections to the form of the indictment and the joinder of the indictments against Croatian General Mladen Markac, Ivan Cermak and Ante Gotovina. Judge Aguis granted the extension and moved the deadline for preliminary objections to 21 April. The judge also decided that the prosecution could reply to the defence's submission by 28 April.
Commenting on the joinder of the proceedings, judge Agnius said that this depended on a number of things, adding that a decision on the joinder of the trials and the proposal on an amended indictment was yet to be adopted.
Everything must be solved in line with the Cermak and Markac case, the judge said. The decision would refer to both cases and then we will see how to proceed, he added.
The Maltese judge said a discuss on the work schedule and consultations with both parties would be held before the next status conference.