Weekly Press Briefing - 17 October 2012

Nerma Jelačić, Head of Communications, made the following statement:

Good afternoon,

Yesterday was a day of particular significance for the Tribunal with the start of its final trial - that of Goran Hadžić, former President of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). Hadžić was the last remaining fugitive of the total of 161 persons indicted by the Tribunal to be arrested last year and the final Accused to be awaiting the start of his trial. The Prosecution has been granted a total of 175 hours for its case, during which the Prosecution has stated it would call 85 witnesses. The Trial Chamber is currently hearing the testimony of the first Prosecution witness, Zlatko Antunović, resuming from yesterday. Zlatko Antunović is from the area of Erdut and Dalj in Croatia and he is testifying about his alleged detention in Dalj.

Radovan Karadžić's defence case began yesterday with the testimony of the first Defence witness, Andrey Demurenko, a retired Colonel of the Russian Army, who is testifying about the shelling incident at Markale market in Sarajevo in 1995. Demurenko served as Chief of Staff of UNPROFOR for the Sarajevo Sector and participated in the investigation of the shelling incident. The next Defence witness is expected to be Paul Conway, a retired Irish Army officer who served as a United Nations Military Observer in the former Yugoslavia from July 1995 to July 1996. His testimony also relates to the shelling of the Markale market.

In the case of Zdravko Tolimir, the Chamber has partially granted the Prosecutor's request for additional time to file a public redacted version of its final trial brief. The Prosecution now has until 31 October 2012 to do so. Once filed, this brief will be made available on the Tribunal's website, where the Defence's final trial brief can already be found.

In the case of Jadranko Prlić and others, Slobodan Praljak has been granted additional time until 22 January 2013 to request a review of the Registrar's decision in which the Accused was found able to remunerate counsel in full and to bear the entirety of the costs of his defence. The decision was rendered on 22 August 2012.

Finally, next week the Tribunal will be closed on Wednesday for UN Day and on Friday for Eid al-Adha.

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