US DEMANDS OF ICTY, ICTR TO STOP LAWYERS FROM SPLITTING FEES WITH DEFENDANTS

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Hina) - The United States on Thursday called on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the UN tribunal on the genocide in Rwanda (ICTR) to impose sanctions against defence attorneys who are splitting fees with defendants as soon as possible.#L# At issue are defense attorneys who inflated fees and then split them with their clients' families, as a possible condition for being hired by the defendant in the first place. The tribunals are discussing amendments to regulations on the legal aid system in order to stop defence attorneys from splitting fees with their clients. The Hague-based war crimes tribunal plans to issue regulations which would prohibit fee-splitting. It will also institute a new payment system for lawyers and sanctions against those who violate the regulations. According to media headlines, defence attorneys, particularly those representing Bosnian Serbs before the ICTY, were splitting fees with their clients or their families. An investigation into the work of the ICTY and the ICTR has been conducted by the U.N. internal oversight office. According to US dailies, defence attorneys' fees amount to up to US$200,000 per year. Close to one fourth of the ICTY annual budget, which amounts to about US$100 million, is financed by the United States. (hina) it