It is almost impossible to start (the trial) on May 7, the judge said at a status conference in The Hague on Tuesday, adding that the postponement would not be long, but without specifying when the trial would start.
The reason for the deferral are a number of unresolved questions concerning the trial. The Appeals Chamber and the trial chamber in charge of the case have still not decided whether defence attorneys Miroslav Separovic, Cedo Prodanovic and Jadranka Slokovic will remain involved in the case, objections to the indictment submitted by defence counsel have not been entirely considered, and there is a number of other logistical problems.
Judge Moloto said the Appeals Chamber was expected to decide on an appeal Markac's attorney Miroslav Separovic filed against the decision of the trial chamber to remove him from the case due to conflict of interest.
He also said that the trial chamber would soon rule on possible conflict of interest on the part of Cermak's lawyers Cedo Prodanovic and Jadranka Slokovic due to the possibility that their other client, Rahim Ademi, could be summoned to testify as a witness in the case.
Judge Moloto called on defence counsel and the prosecution to use the time gained with the postponement to reach agreement on facts concerning the crimes committed, the list of witnesses, posts held by the accused, and the law to be applied.
As for the prosecution's motion regarding witness protection, Gotovina's defence team said they would oppose protected witness status for the so-called professional witnesses, while Gen. Cermak's defence team objected to plans to hide from it the identity of three witnesses whose testimonies it considers important, notably an eye-witness member of the Croatian Army.
In a debate on witness protection, Judge Moloto said that one of the witnesses had decided not to testify due to threats.
The status conference also heard that the disclosure of documents had not been completed, but both defence counsel and the prosecution said they were working in good faith to solve that problem.
Addressing lawyer Separovic, who was representing Gen. Markac since the trial chamber suspended a previous decision on his exemption pending a decision by the Appeals Chamber, Judge Moloto called on defence counsel to use the time until the start of the trial to find a new chief defence attorney in case the Appeals Chamber confirmed the decision on Separovic's exemption.
The prosecution pointed to a new logistical problem caused by the deferral, namely, the need to adjust the new schedule of arrival of witnesses in The Hague to their other engagements, estimating that they would need six to eight weeks for this.
The only defendant to attend today's status conference was General Ante Gotovina, who said that he had no health complaints.
Generals Gotovina, Cermak and Markac are charged with crimes committed at the time of the 1995 Operation Storm. The indictment charges them with crimes against the Serb population committed before, during and in the aftermath of the operation, between July and September 1995, through ethnic cleansing devised as part of a joint criminal enterprise.