The judges of the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia accepted the Prosecution's arguments that Croatia would have a biased role, and that the areas Croatia wanted to tackle were too broad in relation to the indictment and did not pertain to legal issues, which is within the jurisdiction of an amicus curiae.
The judges said in a decision it would not be in the interest of justice to grant amicus curiae status to a state whose former political and military leaders, according to the indictment, had engaged in a joint criminal enterprise.
Croatia requested in September to be granted amicus curiae status in the cases Gotovina, Cermak and Markac, and Prlic and Others, claiming that legal experts and historians would draw up motions whereby Croatia would dispute the Prosecution's unacceptable allegations in the three cases' indictments.
The indictments allege that the crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were committed within a joint criminal enterprise in which the then Croatian state and military leadership took part.
The Office of the Prosecutor last week formalised chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's announcement that she would oppose Croatia's request for amicus curiae status. The Office objected to the request claiming that the areas Croatia wanted to tackle in that capacity were too wide, indeterminate, and insignificant for the establishment of individual responsibility of the accused.
The Prosecution recalled that the practice so far had been to grant amicus curiae status for legal issues and said that granting the status for the establishment of facts entailed a series of problems, including the fact that the amicus curiae is not subject to cross-examination, was not an eyewitness and could not call witnesses.
The Prosecution went on to say that Croatia's request was problematic also because it showed a certain degree of bias due to which Croatia could not be of help to the Trial Chamber.
The Trial Chamber in the "Prlic and Others" case said in its decision that Croatia's request referred mainly to determination of facts and recalled that under the Hague tribunal's rules, presenting facts was within the jurisdiction of the parties in the proceedings and not an amicus curiae.
The Trial Chamber also said that the majority of the facts Croatia wanted to tackle overstepped the frameworks of the indictment and that their consideration would be of no help to the Trial Chamber.
The Trial Chamber concluded by saying that it retained the right to interview, if necessary, the experts proposed by Croatia in line with Article 98 of the tribunal's rules on procedure and evidence, and that the parties in the proceedings too could call them as witnesses or experts.
Croatian Army Generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac were accused of crimes committed during and after 1995's Operation Storm as part of a joint criminal enterprise. The war-time Bosnian Croat political and military leadership is accused in the "Prlic and Others" case for crimes committed during the Bosnian war, also as part of a joint criminal enterprise.