Aleksovski Case
Tribunal Update 34: Last Week in The Hague (June 23-28, 1997)
Aleksovski Case
Tribunal Update 34: Last Week in The Hague (June 23-28, 1997)
The accused requested the Trial Chamber to “order the Prosecutor to supply a sufficient description of the relevant conduct of the accused in connection with the specific elements constituting a crime as meant in the indictment.” and “add to the individual charges a precise description of the place, time and manner of execution of alleged crime and, above all, persons involved.”
In his motion, the accused also seeks to be severed from his four co-accused in the indictment (Dario Kordic, Mario Cercez, Ivan Santic and Pero Skolpljak, all of them still fugitives), and tried separately, “to avoid a possible conflict of interests and to protect the interest of justice.” The accused's right to be tried without undue delay can only be protected if he is tried separately, he claims.
The Croatian authorities extradited Aleksovski to the Tribunal at the end of April. According to the indictment, in January 1993 he was appointed commander of the Kaonik camp near Busovaca, and then in May of the same year he became commander of the Heliodrome camp in Mostar.
The indictment alleges that many prisoners under his control had been subjected to inhumane treatment, including harsh interrogation, physical and mental abuse, forced labour (digging trenches) in dangerous conditions. They had also been used as human shields and some of them had been killed.
