THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 7 (Hina) - A status conference was held before the Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal's Appeals Chamber, at which it was announced that the appeals process in the Kordic-Cerkez case would be expedited. The
process has been ongoing for two years now. Announced also was the introduction of new evidence found in archives of the Croatian secret service, Bosnian Croat army (HVO) and the Bosnian Army.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 7 (Hina) - A status conference was held before
the Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal's Appeals Chamber, at
which it was announced that the appeals process in the Kordic-
Cerkez case would be expedited. The process has been ongoing for two
years now. Announced also was the introduction of new evidence
found in archives of the Croatian secret service, Bosnian Croat
army (HVO) and the Bosnian Army. #L#
In February 2001, the former vice-president of the Croat Republic
of Herceg-Bosna, Dario Kordic, was sentenced by the tribunal to 25
years in prison, while former HVO Knights' Brigade commander Mario
Cerkez got a 15-year prison term for crimes committed during a
Croat-Muslim conflict in central Bosnia in 1993.
Some 40,000 pages of new material appeared in the appeals
proceedings. The material was found in archives in the Bosnian
federation, Croatia and the tribunal's cases "Kupreskic",
"Blaskic" and "Hadzihasanovic".
The prosecution handed a large part of the material to the defence,
in keeping with provision 68 of the rules of proceedings, which
stipulates that evidence which could be characterised as
alleviating or exculpatory must be handed to the defence.
At today's conference, the prosecutor announced that the defence
would be handed the last of the documents from the remaining 20 to 25
volumes of material by the end of the month, and the Appeals Chamber
would be informed of this.
Kordic's attorney Mitko Naumovski and Cerkez's attorneys Bozidar
Kovacevic and Goran Mikulicic said that as soon as they received the
documents, they would move that new evidence be introduced in the
proceedings before the Appeals Chamber.
If the Appeals Chamber grants the introduction of new evidence as
justified, it should schedule an appeals hearing, which was today
announced for next month. If the Chamber finds the evidence
sufficient to call for a re-trial, it could decide that the trial be
repeated fully or partially.
Kordic and Cerkez turned themselves in to the Hague tribunal among a
group of ten Bosnian Croats on October 6, 1997. The five and a half
years they had spent in detention will be calculated into their
sentences.
(hina) lml sb