THE HAGUE, Oct 11 (Hina) - The Appeals Chamber of the Hague-based war crimes tribunal has given the prosecution in the "Kordic-Cerkez" case three more months to analyse another million and a half pages of material obtained from the
Croatian and Bosnian state archives, it was said at a status conference in The Hague on Friday.
THE HAGUE, Oct 11 (Hina) - The Appeals Chamber of the Hague-based
war crimes tribunal has given the prosecution in the "Kordic-
Cerkez" case three more months to analyse another million and a half
pages of material obtained from the Croatian and Bosnian state
archives, it was said at a status conference in The Hague on Friday.
#L#
The latest decision prolongs the appeals procedure in the case to
next year, which is when a hearing could take place at the earliest,
first regarding the possible introduction of new evidence and then
the appeal against the non-final verdict of February 26, 2001,
which sentenced a former vice-president of the Croatian Republic of
Herceg-Bosna, Dario Kordic, and a former commander of the Vitez
Brigade, Mario Cerkez, to 25 and 15 years of prison respectively for
the persecution of the Muslim population of Central Bosnia.
Kordic and Cerkez surrendered to the tribunal together with another
eight Bosnian Croats on October 6, 1997. Last Sunday was the fifth
anniversary of their imprisonment.
Kordic's defence attorney Mitko Naumovski said at the conference
the defence could only accept the new deadline, which was confirmed
by Cerkez's attorney Bozidar Kovacic, who told the tribunal that
their clients' detention pending final verdict had become
extremely long.
The status conference is a session which is held regularly to
discuss progress made in every case.
(hina) rml sb