By proposing for the first time that a trial begun before the Hague tribunal be turned over to Serbia and Montenegro, del Ponte voiced confidence that the Belgrade District Court was capable of holding the trial in accordance with international standards.
Kovacevic is charged with violations of the laws and customs of war committed through the shelling of the southern Croatian resort of Dubrovnik on 6 December 1991. The town's historic centre, which is protected by UNESCO, was shelled throughout the day from positions of the JNA Trebinje Brigade's Third Battalion, which was under Captain Kovacevic's command.
Kovacevic is accused alongside General Pavle Strugar, who is waiting for the Hague tribunal to hand down a verdict after the end of his trial in July, and Admiral Miodrag Jokic, who was sentenced in 2003 to seven years' imprisonment after admitting his responsibility for the destruction of Dubrovnik.
Kovacevic was arrested by Serbian authorities on 25 September 2003. He was transferred to the Hague tribunal's detention centre a month later, but his plea entering was delayed a number of times due to his poor psychic condition. Defence counsel said that he had undergone psychiatric treatment in Serbia.
After being examined in the detention centre, Kovacevic was diagnosed with psychosis and temporarily unfit to stand trial. On June 6 this year the Trial Chamber sent him to Belgrade to undergo mandatory psychiatric treatment, concluding that proceedings would resume once his health improved.
In her proposal del Ponte opposed the possibility of transferring Kovacevic's case to Croatia because she felt this would not be in the interest of his mental condition.
She said that otherwise, cases should be turned over to the country where crimes were allegedly committed so that justice could be served as close to the victims as possible.
The chief prosecutor recalled that the Belgrade District Court was prosecuting persons accused for the mass killing at Ovcara, Croatia, and that she recently handed the war crimes prosecutor in Belgrade the file of a man suspected of crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In line with the Hague tribunal's exit strategy, which envisages transferring less significant cases to national courts, del Ponte has to date proposed transferring to Croatia the trial of generals Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac, and to Bosnia a case against four Bosnian Serbs.
The proposals are being considered by a special council appointed by the Hague tribunal's president, American Judge Theodor Meron.