THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 11 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague has refused to appoint Belgrade attorneys Goran Petronijevic and Momcilo Bulatovic as defence counsel for the accused
Veselin Sljivancanin on the grounds that they did not know either of the tribunal's working languages and because of Petronijevic's "bad reputation" from trials of Kosovo Albanians in Serbia.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 11 (Hina) - The International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague has refused to
appoint Belgrade attorneys Goran Petronijevic and Momcilo
Bulatovic as defence counsel for the accused Veselin Sljivancanin
on the grounds that they did not know either of the tribunal's
working languages and because of Petronijevic's "bad reputation"
from trials of Kosovo Albanians in Serbia. #L#
ICTY Registrar Hans Holthuis has informed Sljivancanin in a letter,
which was made public in The Hague on Thursday, that he rejected his
request for the appointment of the two lawyers as his counsel
because they did not speak either English or French as the necessary
requirement.
Holthuis questioned Petronijevic's suitability as defence counsel
to be paid by the tribunal, saying that Petronijevic had earned a
bad reputation as a district judge because of the way in which he
conducted criminal proceedings against ethnic Albanians in the
case of Muhedin Zeka and others in 2000.
Holthuis said Petronijevic's appointment would be detrimental to
the tribunal's reputation.
Veselin Sljivancanin, a former Yugoslav army colonel accused of the
massacre of at least 200 Croatian prisoners at the Ovcara farm near
the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar, pleaded not guilty to war
crimes charges at his initial appearance before the tribunal on
Thursday.
(hina) vm sb