SEVERANCE OF KOSOVO INDICTMENT OPPOSED BY PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 29, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Slobodan Milosevic and the prosecution both opposed on Tuesday a plan by the Hague Tribunal to sever the Kosovo part of the indictment and render an early judgment.

Milosevic asked for a break in the proceedings so that his health could have time to improve. He also asked the tribunal for more time to present his defense case. The prosecution vehemently opposed both of those requests.

THE PROSECUTION'S POSITION

On the question of severance, Mr. Nice said, "The prosecution is completely opposed to any question of severance of the indictments."

The prosecutor argued that Milosevic's actions throughout the 10-year break-up of Yugoslavia were part of a “pattern” that was relevant to Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. "This is a case that has to be seen as a whole," he said.

On the question of health, the prosecution made it clear that it opposed any break in the trial due to Milosevic's ill health. To achieve this aim, Mr. Nice suggested that Milosevic be forced to surrender control of his defense to the court-imposed British lawyers, Mr. Kay and Ms. Higgins.

Mr. Nice repeatedly referred to Milosevic's "apparent illness," which indicates that the prosecution did not believe that Milosevic has a genuine illness. The prosecutor also suggested that Milosevic was not taking his medication.

The prosecutor's insinuations can be put to bed straight away. There are medical reports proving that Milosevic has a genuine illness. Milosevic exhibits symptoms that have been verified by medical testing. Medication is dispensed by the prison pharmacy each day, and all of the prisoners have to take their medicine in front of the guards. There is no way for Milosevic to avoid taking his medication.

On the question of time, Mr. Nice made it clear that the prosecution opposed extending the time available to the defense. The defense has been allotted 150 days in which to present its case. 75% of that time has already been used. If no more time is allotted the defense case will be cut-off sometime in March 2006.

It is worth noting that the prosecution was afforded twice as much time, nearly 300 days, to present its case.

The prosecutor ended his submissions by making it clear that he would not drop any of the charges in any of the indictments. Nice said the prosecution was determined to finish the entire case.

MILOSEVIC'S POSITION

Milosevic repeated his request that the trial be adjourned to give his health time stabilize. Earlier this month, an expert medical team made-up of doctors from Russia, France, and Serbia examined Milosevic and determined that he needed to rest for at least six weeks.

The Tribunal's own doctors confirmed the findings of the expert medical team. They also concluded that Milosevic needed time to rest. However, they thought six weeks might be "a bit much".

Milosevic pointed to a ruling of the ICTY Appeals Chamber, which states that the trial must be adjourned from time to time in order to keep the trial manageable. The ruling stated that breaks must be scheduled to give the parties time to rest, and time to marshal their evidence. So far no such adjournments have been given.

On the question of severance, Milosevic is completely opposed. He said splitting the case into separate trials was "illogical and unlawful acrobatics".

Milosevic made the point that the Kosovo indictment primarily accuses “forces of the FRY and Serbia.” He said that the tribunal wants to sever the indictment and render an early verdict on Kosovo in order to effect the upcoming Kosovo negotiations in a manner favorable to the Albanian secessionists.

He pointed out that the indictments were joined at the request of the prosecution, because it was their case that he was the mastermind behind a "Joint Criminal Enterprise" aimed at creating "Greater-Serbia." The prosecution's case was that the "Greater-Serbia" conspiracy was the common element tying all three indictments together.

The prosecution has since dropped the "Greater-Serbia" argument making it unclear why Milosevic is even on trial in the first place. The prosecution is still alleging that Milosevic masterminded some sort of a conspiracy, but nobody knows what the objective of the conspiracy was supposed to be.

No evidence has been presented to suggest that Milosevic personally committed war crimes or that he ordered others to commit war crimes. The prosecution's entire case was that Milosevic was the mastermind behind a conspiracy to create "Greater-Serbia" and that crimes were committed as the result, or in the pursuit, of that conspiracy. Without the existence of a conspiracy there is nothing linking Milosevic to the specific crimes alleged by the indictment.

As far as time is concerned, one way to speed up the trial would be to drop all charges stemming from the so-called "Joint Criminal Enterprise." Of course this would decimate the entire prosecution case. As it stands now, the prosecution case is far too vague and wide ranging to be dealt with in any reasonable amount of time.

On that basis Milosevic asked for an extension of time. He said that he should be given at least as much time to prepare and present his case as the prosecution was given. He pointed out that the prosecution took nearly three years to prepare its case before the trial began and that it was given 300 days to present its case. He compared that to the fact that he was only given three months to prepare, and only 150 days to present his entire defense case.

Milosevic ended his submissions by pointing out that the tribunal's obsession with speeding-up the trial only emerged once his defense case began. The prosecution had as much time as it wanted, and was perfectly happy to waste everybody’s time with irrelevant witnesses.

MR. KAY'S POSITION

Mr. Kay followed-up on Milosevic's argument that an extension of time was required because the case is so vague and wide-ranging.

Mr. Kay provided the following statistics to show just how unmanageable this case has become: The transcript is more than 46,000 pages long; 2,256 filings have been submitted by the parties totaling 63,775 pages; The prosecution has 930 exhibits totaling more than 85,000 pages plus 117 video tapes and hundreds of DVDs and CD-ROMs; The defense has 328 exhibits totaling more than 9,000 pages plus several video tapes; 106,000 pages of documents have been generated under Rule 66(A) plus another 207,000 pages under Rule 66(B); 930,000 pages of documents have been generated under Rule 68; In total the trial has generated more than 1,200,000 pages of documents, and that number is growing.

Mr. Kay pointed out that the 66 counts of the indictment are only "chapter headings" and that each count relied on several allegations contained in the indictment. He said that the indictment contained several thousand allegations, each of which could be capable of supporting its own full-scale trial.

The bottom line of Mr. Kay's submissions is that nobody could possibly be expected to deal with this volume of material in only 150 days. One could not even begin to scratch the surface in 150 days.

NO RULING FROM THE TRIAL CHAMBER YET

After the parties made their submissions Judge Robinson said the court would wait for more medical examinations before making a decision on whether to sever the indictments or schedule a break in the trial.

"We still have outstanding a report ... and there has to be an examination by a radiologist," he said, adding that the trial would continue on Wednesday.

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