THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - The defence team of Slobodan Milosevic is expected to file a request for dropping charges against their client before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by 8
March.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - The defence team of Slobodan
Milosevic is expected to file a request for dropping charges against
their client before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) by 8 March. #L#
Milosevic, who is defending himself at the trial before the ICTY, has
so far refused the possibility of filing such a request. The trial
chamber, however, has allowed 'amici curiae' to do that on his behalf.
According to sources at the tribunal, it is very likely that the amici
curiae will submit the request, and prosecutors have 14 days to
respond to it.
The trial chamber will then decide whether and on which charges
Milosevic will be acquitted. After that, Milosevic will know exactly
for which counts of his indictment he should prepare his defence. The
presentation of evidence by the defence will commence on 8 June.
In the past two years, the prosecution presented its evidence against
Milosevic. It introduced 300 witnesses and presented thousands of
pieces of material evidence to reconstruct the events in the 1990s
when the Serb leadership headed by Slobodan Milosevic worked on the
disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to
establish a Greater Serbia. This fueled bloody wars which were waged
against Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Most legal experts agree that the prosecutors have provided sufficient
evidence that Serb forces committed systematic crimes and that
Milosevic had a crucial role in the wars. However, they believe that
the prosecution failed to present clinching evidence to prove
Milosevic's responsibility for genocide in Bosnia.
Preparing the international public and the victims for the possibility
that Milosevic might be acquitted on genocide charges, Chief
Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has passed the buck onto the authorities in
Belgrade, accusing them of denying access to military papers stored in
the state archives.
According to her, the ICTY's prosecutors have succeeded in proving
Milosevic's responsibility for crimes against humanity and violations
of the laws and customs of war.
Milosevic is charged with genocide and complicity in genocide in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the prosecution was more successful in proving
the latter.
Since 12 February 2002, Milosevic has been tried by the ICTY on five
counts in the Kosovo part of his indictment for the persecution,
murder and deportation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.
The Bosnian section of the indictment with 29 counts alleges that he
is guilty of genocide and complicity in genocide in Bosnia from 1992
to 1995. The Croatian section of the indictment contains 32 counts of
persecution, extermination, murder, detention, harassment, deportation
and destruction, committed from 1991 to 1995.
(Hina) ms sb