SYMPOSIUM ON ICTY: ICTY DEFENCE ATTORNEYS IN INFERIOR POSITION

OPATIJA, May 8 (Hina) - Defence attorneys at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and their clients are in unequal position in relation to the well equipped prosecutor's office, which has not only a greater number of experts but greater financial funds as well, it was said at an international symposium on the work of the ICTY in the northern Adriatic town of Opatija Monday. Attorney Ante Nobilo said that the activities of the Croatian Government's Office for Cooperation with the ICTY should be expanded and that the Office should offer expert help to prosecution and defence attorneys in gathering evidence and finding witness. Ksenija Turkovic from the Zagreb Faculty of Law believes that as a part of the ICTY, a special defence office, which would offer help to defence attorney and would be equal to the prosecutor's office, should be opened. She pointed to the need for the establishment of an independent mechanism for the examination of verdicts which would be guaranteed by the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights. The attorney of so far the only acquitted ICTY indictee, Nika Pintar, pointed to the inequality in pre-trial proceedings in which an attorney is often faced with unclear indictment on which the attorney is to voice his or her opinion in a short period. (hina) it jn