ICTY CLOSES DOKMANOVIC CASE AFTER DEFENDANT'S SUICIDE

( Editorial: --> 4437 ) THE HAGUE, June 29 (Hina) - The Dokmanovic case was closed following the defendant's death and the judges will not rule, a spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Christian Chartier, said Monday. Slavko Dokmanovic committed suicide in his ICTY prison cell last night. A trial against Dokmanovic began on January 19 and terminated on June 25. A ruling was to be made public on July 7. According to unofficial sources close to the tribunal, the prosecutor demanded lifetime imprisonment. The tribunal's spokesman expected the prosecutor will use the evidence submitted during the Dokmanovic trial at a possible future trial against three officers of the former Yugoslav People's Army, Sljivancanin, Mrksic and Radic, who are on the same bill of indictment as Dokmanovic, but are unavailable to the tribunal. Asked whether the judges will in any way report their stand concerning Dokmanovic's charges and the crime which took place in Vukovar, eastern Croatia, in late 1991, spokesman Chartier said the ICTY did not wish to be in an unfinished situation, but must comply with law standards stipulating that a deceased person cannot be sentenced. Chartier said that due to a poor mental condition, Dokmanovic was for several months last year submitted to strict supervision, including cell cameras. These measures were taken following an incident the spokesman did not specify, but were abolished on request of Dokmanovic's defence and psychiatrist. The measures were reinstated, although more lenient, at a doctor's suggestion yesterday, after Dokmanovic complained of not feeling well around six pm. It was ordered for the light in the cell to be switched on all the time and for guards to check on the detainee every 30 minutes. On Friday, Dokmanovic's defence Toma Fila requested that the defendant be supplied with some medication. Chartier declined to specify which illness or disorder Dokmanovic had complained of, but said he did not threaten with suicide. A source close to Fila said Dokmanovic's used to phone his lawyer up to five times a day, saying he would kill himself and that the prosecutor wanted to destroy him. According to the defendant's psychiatrist Vera Petrovic, whose report the defence submitted at the trial, Dokmanovic suffered from anxiety, depression and paranoia. A witness for the prosecution, also a psychiatrist, evaluated that these were neurotic traits, but insufficient to predict a person's future or explain their past behaviour. Reporters inquired whether stricter supervision could have been effected over Dokmanovic given his physical and mental difficulties and if objects he might use to take his own life could have been taken from him. The ICTY spokesman said everything appropriate had been done, and added that the accused are on a detention regime which, he said, is less strict than in prison. An autopsy may be performed, after which Dokmanovic's body will be turned over to the family, Chartier said, adding he was not aware that the suicide had left a note in his cell. The spokesman did not link the ICTY with Dokmanovic's suicide. The trial was fair and speedy. A verdict was to be passed a year after the arrest, Chartier said, adding for the first time a decision on the punishment was to be published simultaneously with the verdict. Dokmanovic was the former president of the city assembly in Vukovar, a town in the Danube river region of eastern Croatia. He was charged with serious breach of the Geneva Convention, breach of the customs of war, and participation and assistance in the battery and killing of more than 200 people from a Vukovar hospital on November 20, 1991. (hina) ha 291521 MET jun 98