THE HAGUE, July 23 (Hina) - The Appeals Council of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague should conduct its hearing on the appeal lodged by former Bosnian Croat commander of the Operational Zone in Central Bosnia, Tihomir
Blaskic and after that pass a final ruling, the ICTY reported on Tuesday.
THE HAGUE, July 23 (Hina) - The Appeals Council of the International
Criminal Tribunal in The Hague should conduct its hearing on the
appeal lodged by former Bosnian Croat commander of the Operational
Zone in Central Bosnia, Tihomir Blaskic and after that pass a final
ruling, the ICTY reported on Tuesday. #L#
The hearing should as planned be held during November or December
this year, the ICTY's spokesman Jim Landale said. Following the
appeal hearing, early next year the appeals council will be able to
bring a final ruling.
Prior the actual hearing in Blaskic's appeal, a five-member appeals
council should come up with a decision some time between August and
November on several submissions by the defence requesting that new
evidence be allowed to be introduced, given that the evidence only
became available after the proclamation of the ruling in the first
instance.
On March 3, 2000, the first-instance trial chamber proclaimed
Blaskic guilty and sentenced him to 45 years imprisonment for war
crimes committed in the Lasva valley mid 1992 to 1994 of which the
most serious charge was the slaughter of Muslims in the village of
Ahmici.
Blaskic's defence appealed to the Appeals Council in January this
year and asked that the former commander of the Operational Zone of
Central Bosnia be acquitted of all the charges.
The defence believes that newly discovered evidence which was kept
under cover by the former government in Croatia as well as by the
prosecution in The Hague, undoubtedly prove Blaskic's innocence.
The documents, as noted in Blaskic's appeal, were kept under cover
by the then Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. The documents
include numerous intelligence reports issued by the chief of the
secret intelligence service (HIS), Miroslav Tudjman, for his
father about the events in Central Bosnia which indicate that Dario
Kordic, Ignac Kostroman, Ante Sliskovic Pasko and Vlado Cosic were
responsible for planning and issuing the commands about the crimes
committed in Ahmici which were carried out by the 4th battalion of
the military police.
The prosecution in May responded to the defence's appeal, and
estimated that the appeal was unfounded concluding that the first
instance trial chamber correctly concluded that General Blaskic
was personally guilty and commanded the expulsion of the Muslim
population from the Lasva valley and as such was sentenced
appropriately.
The prosecution did not respond to the new evidence which Blaskic's
defence asked to be introduced to the court. The prosecution
explained that the Appeals Council had still not made its decision
on possibly accepting the evidence.
In response to claims by the defence that the prosecution in fact
considers Kordic responsible for these crimes, the prosecution
noted that with the issuing indictments for the cases in the Lasva
valley it considered both suspects accountable.
In a new presentation by the defence in response to the
prosecution's reaction to the appeal, it is noted that the mere fact
that the prosecution in its submission did not wish to respond to
the new evidence presented by the defence indicates that
prosecutors fundamentally undermine the decisions by the first
instance trial chamber.
A revised text of that document was submitted to the court in June
and released this month.
In it is noted that the first instance trial chamber made its ruling
without one piece of evidence that Blaskic ordered the unlawful
behaviour of his subordinates.
(hina) sp ms