MR. KAY’S GAME: HE RESIGNS BUT HE DOESN'T LEAVE
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – November 11, 2004

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

It has become apparent that Mr. Kay, the attorney imposed on Slobodan Milosevic against his will, is playing a game. He has filed his resignation, but he has no intention of going anywhere.

It is worth noting that Mr. Kay filed his resignation on the same day as the Dutch Bar Association served papers informing him that he was to appear before their disciplinary board, because of a complaint filed against him by Slobodan Milosevic’s attorney, Nico Steijnen.

Steijnen, who is a board member of the Slobodan Milosevic Freedom Center, says that “Kay is playing a dirty game” and that Kay’s resignation is just a charade designed to protect him from being punished by the bar association.

Steijnen points out that absolutely nothing stops Kay from just walking away.

In court on Thursday, Kay told the Judges that if his resignation was accepted he would stay on until a replacement lawyer was found. Obviously, Kay knows that no replacement lawyer is readily available. A replacement lawyer would need at least a year to familiarize himself with the case.

Kay dropped hints, but stopped short of saying that he would walk away if his resignation was not granted. It is possible that his resignation will be denied, and he will stay on as imposed counsel anyway.  

In the mean time, the tribunal has not ruled on his resignation one way or the other, and so Kay stays on and functions normally. Although, Judge Robinson said that a decision would be made shortly.

Aside from the issue of Kay’s so-called “resignation” other matters were discussed at Thursday’s abbreviated hearing.

The prosecution came up with a so-called “skeleton plan” to limit Milosevic’s time to present his defense. The idea behind the plan was clearly to inflict stress on him, and to deny him the time that he needs to prepare and call witnesses.

Milosevic again asked the tribunal to issue subpoenas for former US president Bill Clinton, and secretary of state Madeleine Albright, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and former defense minister Rudolf Scharping and former NATO commander Wesley Clark.

Milosevic also asked to recall the witness Franz Joszef Hutsch.

The next witness will be Mihajlo Markovic. Markovic will testify next Tuesday, then the court will adjourn until the following Monday.

Mr. Robinson said that the defense portion of the trial needs to be finished in a time span of 150 working days at a rate of 3 days a week, and every stoppage in the proceedings that arises from the need to prepare witnesses will be counted against the 150 days.

It is worth noting that these conditions were not imposed on the prosecution. The prosecution took almost 300 days to present its case, and was not forced to count the time preparing its witnesses against the time it needed to present its case.
 

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