Prosecutor Attempts to Cut Mladic Indictment
Brammertz said his office will look into removing certain municipalities or incidents.
Prosecutor Attempts to Cut Mladic Indictment
Brammertz said his office will look into removing certain municipalities or incidents.
At a meeting with journalists this week in The Hague, tribunal prosecutor Serge Brammertz said his office is attempting to cut down the case against Ratko Mladic after a bid to have two separate trials was rejected by judges.
“What we are doing now is reviewing the case to see how much it would theoretically be possible to further reduce the case without jeopardising our main objective, which is to make sure we have an efficient prosecution, to make sure…the major crimes in relation to different components are represented,” Brammertz said during the October 19 lunch meeting, which was held in a press centre near the Dutch parliament.
The prosecutor confirmed that his office will not appeal the decision to hold one long trial instead of two shorter ones, explaining that the issue is within the judges’ discretion and the legal grounds necessary for an appeal are lacking.
The prosecution had asked for two consecutive trials – the first dealing with the Srebrenica massacre and the second focusing on the siege of Sarajevo and crimes committed in various Bosnian municipalities – because they argued it would be more efficient and better suited to “unforeseen contingencies” should Mladic’s health deteriorate. Judges rejected this request on October 13. (For more on this, see http://iwpr.net/report-news/bid-two-mladic-trials-rejected)
In terms of how to trim the current indictment, Brammertz said that eliminating an entire component of the case – such as all the Bosnian municipalities, or the entire siege of Sarajevo – is not something the prosecution is considering.
“It’s of course a theoretical option, but it’s absolutely not an option we are currently working on,” Brammertz said.
Rather, he said his office will look into removing certain municipalities or incidents from the indictment, but not any of the components in their entirety. In addition, there will be a focus on presenting as much written evidence as possible from witnesses who have already testified, thus limiting time consuming live testimony, he said.
Mladic was the commander of the Bosnian Serb army from 1992 to 1996, and is alleged to have been responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war. These include the Srebrenica massacre, which resulted in the murder of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, as well as the shelling and sniping campaign against Sarajevo, which killed about 12,000 civilians.
He is also charged with crimes of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer in relation to various municipalities across Bosnia. He was arrested in Serbia on May 26 after 16 years as a fugitive.
As for the issue of Mladic’s health – the subject of intense speculation since the 69-year-old’s arrest – Brammertz said it is not for the prosecution to “give any opinion on [his] fitness for trial or the health situation and its impact on the trial”.
Mladic, who now bears little resemblance to the robust general seen in wartime video footage, was reportedly hospitalised with pneumonia last week. The court would only confirm that he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition.
Many observers and victims’ groups have expressed concern that Mladic might not survive a lengthy trial. This is what happened to ex-Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who died four years into his trial in 2006, and as a result a verdict was never delivered. It is a scenario no one wants to see repeated.
Brammertz said that one of the reasons his office asked for two trials was to have a “contingency plan” should the accused have health issues, but this remains “hypothetical”.
“So far we have no indications indeed that there would be an impossibility to stand trial and we are planning this trial as we would do it in any other situation,” Brammertz said.
He also spoke about wanting to find out who was helping Mladic evade justice, especially in recent years as international pressure on Serbia intensified. Mladic was finally arrested on May 26 in a relative’s home in the village of Lazarevo in Serbia.
“[Mladic] was arrested 70 kilometres from Belgrade at his cousin’s place…so it’s not the most difficult place to find somebody, and not the last place I would look if I would look for a fugitive,” Brammertz said.
“For me, it’s to know that what I’ve been told for the past four years … is really the right thing. I want to know exactly where he was hiding over the past years because then we will know if those who were in charge of looking for him were telling the truth or not.”
When one journalist suggested that he didn’t trust the Serbian authorities, Brammertz responded that as a prosecutor, he has to look into the facts.
“I’m not paid to believe or to trust,” he said. “I’m looking into facts and then making an assessment. So far, I don’t have enough facts in my hands which allow me to make a final assessment.”
Brammertz said he expects to be briefed on this issue when he visits Belgrade in early November.
Mladic will next appear in court for a status conference on November 10.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
