MR. KAY’S MALICIOUS INCOMPETENCE LEAVES IMPORTANT EVIDENCE UNHEARD
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – October 19, 2004

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

 

Liana Kanneli, a former journalist, and a current member of the Greek Parliament testified at the so-called “trial” of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague on Tuesday.

Miss Kanneli’s testimony was focused mainly on a visit that she made, as a journalist, to the southern Serbian town of Aleksinac during NATO’s 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. She testified that NATO warplanes had bombed numerous civilian houses and apartments during the month of April.

She also testified that she had an opportunity, on that trip, to chat with president Milosevic for a few minutes in Belgrade, but she could not recall very much of what he said, and did not want to be put in the position of misquoting him.

Overall her testimony was of relatively little value. NATO has admitted that it bombed civilians in Aleksinac, and Ms. Kanneli isn’t a military person to be able to answer a lot of questions, nor is she as familiar with the town as somebody who lived there would have been.

Almost half an hour was spent just trying to find Aleksinac on the map, until it was realized that the map Mr. Kay was supplying didn’t cover the part of Serbia that Aleksinac is in.

Miss Kanneli did have very important evidence that she could have given, but Mr. Kay’s worthless examination left this crucial information untouched.

She was only briefly able to mention the problems that Greece is having with the Albanian intentions to bring the northern part of Greece into greater-Albania.

She has documents that she acquired, as a journalist, from the German Ministry of Defense. Those documents apparently describe the KLA’s connections to the Mafia. Because of Mr. Kay’s obstruction, she was not able to present the documents and their contents were not discussed.

She had also obtained, from research in the Nazi archives, the plan of the Axis powers to create greater-Albania. She was only able to mention this information in passing. Mr. Kay’s malicious examination simply made it impossible for her to present the information.

Upon the completion of Mr. Kay’s so-called “examination-in-chief,” president Milosevic asked one question. He asked her if the questions that she was asked by Mr. Kay were the questions that she had been put on the witness list to testify about. Her response was that they were not the questions that had been agreed upon.

So far, I have been very nice to Mr. Kay, but after the way he just wasted this witness, I have to say that he is maliciously trying to wreck Milosevic’s defense by wasting time, and not asking the important questions.

This exercise proves that it is utterly pointless for any defense witness to testify for Mr. Kay. Witnesses should only testify if president Milosevic is allowed to conduct his own defense.

Furthermore, this proves the urgency behind the litigation filed by the Slobodan Milosevic Freedom Center to get Mr. Kay disbarred so that he can no longer masquerade as “Milosevic’s lawyer.”

The witness boycott left Mr. Kay with no witnesses to call after Miss Kanneli. The latest witness to join the boycott is a German national, a Mr. Hartwick. The so-called “trial” was adjourned until next Tuesday to give Kay time to try and find some witnesses.

This adjournment does not effect the appeals hearing that is scheduled for this Thursday. The appeals hearing will deal with the decision of the trial chamber to impose counsel on Milosevic against his will.

Meanwhile Belgrade’s B92 radio is reporting that Simo Spasic, the president of the Association of Families of the Abducted and Missing in Kosovo has sought protection from the Serbian government and police against being subpoenaed by the Hague Tribunal.

Spasic says that if he is forcibly brought to The Hague that he will simply remain silent. He says, “I will be silent in court because I don’t want to give legitimacy to defense counsel Steven Kay and the Hague Tribunal, which does not want to hear the truth about events in Kosovo from the arrival of KFOR to today.”

The decision of the Tribunal to deny Milosevic the right to defend himself is the cause of the witness boycott, and as a consequence only five witnesses have been heard since the so-called “defense case” began seven weeks ago.
 

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