ZAGREB, June 19 (Hina) - Three U.S. attorneys of Bosnian Croat Tihomir Blaskic have requested the Hague war crimes tribunal's Appeals Chamber for a temporary discontinuation of appeals proceedings after the U.S. president banned U.S.
citizens from helping persons indicted by the U.N. court, according to a statement the tribunal released on Thursday.
ZAGREB, June 19 (Hina) - Three U.S. attorneys of Bosnian Croat
Tihomir Blaskic have requested the Hague war crimes tribunal's
Appeals Chamber for a temporary discontinuation of appeals
proceedings after the U.S. president banned U.S. citizens from
helping persons indicted by the U.N. court, according to a
statement the tribunal released on Thursday. #L#
In their statement, Russell Haymann, Andrew Paley, and Robert
Perrin seek the discontinuation until they get permission from the
United States to represent Blaskic in appeals proceedings. The
general has been sentenced to 45 years in jail for war crimes
committed during the war in Bosnia. He has been in custody since 1
April 1996.
The three attorneys recall in their statement that President George
Bush last month issued an order banning U.S. citizens from
extending services to anyone indicted by the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Exemptions
from the order may be granted solely by the U.S. Department of
Finance.
The Bush order also froze the assets of some 200 people the U.S.
government sees as obstructing the establishment of peace in ex-
Yugoslavia's area. The list includes all people indicted by the
ICTY.
Blaskic's three U.S. attorneys have received from the Department of
Finance an additional explanation confirming that legally helping
Blaskic without the exemption would constitute a breach of Bush's
order, Anto Nobilo, Blaskic's Croatian attorney, told Hina today.
He expects a positive outcome of the situation "because the
contrary would constitute a violation of the basic rights to a
defence by one's own choice, which is guaranteed by international
conventions".
Nobilo explained Blaskic had chosen to have in his defence
attorneys in continental and Anglo-Saxon law because of the way the
ICTY works.
Nobilo said depriving U.S. attorneys of the right to represent
defendants at the ICTY would bring into question the principle of
equality in proceedings because the tribunal employs U.S.
prosecutors. Denying permission would run counter to the U.S.
policy of advocating that all the accused from the ex-Yugoslavia be
brought to justice and are not denied basic rights, he said.
Blaskic is acquainted with the content of the statement, said
Nobilo. Unless the U.S. grants the exemption, he will be the only
one from the defence team at next week's status conference at which
the course of the appeal proceedings will be considered.
The defence and the prosecution are currently making their final
submissions, after which the Appeals Chamber will make a decision
about the outcome of the Blaskic case, said Nobilo.
ICTY spokesman Jim Landale told Hina over the phone the ICTY
president was in contact with the U.S. government in an effort to
resolve the matter.
Hearings in the Brdjanin case have been adjourned until Friday
because U.S. lawyers are employed for the defence, said Landale.
Another Bosnian Croat, Mladen Naletilic aka Tuta, also has a U.S.
attorney representing him before the ICTY. Luka Misetic, who
represents fugitive Croatian Ante Gotovina, is a U.S. citizen as
well.
(hina) ha