Mladic Lawyer Opposes Two Trials
Defence says severing the charges will lead to further complications.
Mladic Lawyer Opposes Two Trials
Defence says severing the charges will lead to further complications.
The defence lawyer for former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic this week said a prosecution request to sever the indictment and conduct two separate trials would violate his client’s right to due process, and violate the presumption of innocence.
“General Mladic is entitled to the same protections and rights afforded other accused, irrespective of the date of this arrival [in The Hague],” defence lawyer Branko Lukic wrote in a August 31 response to the prosecution request, which was filed two weeks earlier.
“Likewise, the right to [an] expedient trial cannot be enforced to the detriment of the accused by forcing trial before he is ready.”
The prosecution made the unprecedented move to sever the indictment because they said it would allow for “shorter, more focused trials” that permit “better case management in the event of an unforeseen illness, disability or decline in health”.
The first trial would focus solely on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, during which some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed by Serb forces under Mladic’s command. The second trial would deal with the 44-month shelling and sniping campaign against Sarajevo as well as the crimes Mladic is accused of committing in 23 municipalities across Bosnia.
Ever since the former general was arrested on May 26 after 16 years as a fugitive, there has been much speculation about his state of health, increased by his frail appearance and slurred speech during court appearances. Observers and victims have expressed concern that Mladic might not survive a multi-year trial.
Prosecutors say they do not have information suggesting that Mladic’s current condition “could impede his pre-trial preparations or participation”, but they point out that given the defendant’s advanced age of 69, “it is prudent to take into account the contingency that his health could deteriorate in the future”.
Legal experts say conducting two trials would reduce the chances of Mladic dying before any verdict can be reached, which is essentially what happened in proceedings against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
Despite four years of trial, judges were unable to make any findings in the sprawling case – which covered events in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo – because the accused died in 2006 before it was finished.
If the indictment is severed, prosecutors might at least secure a verdict for the Srebrenica massacre, in which they allege Mladic played a “central role”. Several of his subordinates have already been convicted for their parts in it.
Mladic’s lawyer, however, rejects these arguments.
“With General Mladic’s poor health, he will require more time to prepare not less,” Lukic stated in his response. “The [prosecution] request puts the defence in the position when it has to conduct the first trial and preparation for [the] second simultaneously.”
He said “three or four” additional defence teams would be required to “ensure fairness” in each trial and the subsequent appeal process.
“Severance of the indictment and two separate trials will not lead to more effective and speedy trials, it will make the case even more complicated, [and] necessarily will bring … the repetition of the testimony of witnesses,” Lukic continued.
In addition, the two trials could infringe upon the presumption of innocence if factual findings in the first Srebrenica trial were “used against” Mladic in the second trial “particularly if both are heard by the same trial chamber”.
“General Mladic is to be presumed innocent under law, and we believe the evidence will show him to be innocent,” Lukic wrote.
Mladic will next appear in court on October 6.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
