Separate Trial Request for Mladic
In unprecedented move, prosecution asks for charges to be divided into two separate cases.
Separate Trial Request for Mladic
In unprecedented move, prosecution asks for charges to be divided into two separate cases.
Prosecutors at the Hague tribunal this week requested that Ratko Mladic’s indictment be split in order to conduct two separate trials.
The first trial would focus solely on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, during which some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered 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 over committing in 23 municipalities across Bosnia.
It is the first time in the court’s history that the prosecution has asked for two separate trials in one case, and it is now up to the judges to decide on the matter.
According to the prosecution’s August 16 request, splitting the indictment and conducting two separate trials is in “the interests of justice” and a “prudent, practical step”.
Since the former Bosnian Serb army commander 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”.
Severing the indictment will, they say, allow for “shorter, more focused trials” that permit “better case management in the event of an unforeseen illness, disability or decline in health”.
During a press conference this week, Aleksandar Kontic, speaking on behalf of the office of the prosecutor, said that “severing the indictment against Mladic into two trials was the most efficient way to proceed, maximising the prospect of justice being done for all the victims”.
Kontic noted that there were no current plans to join Mladic’s Srebrenica trial with the trial of his wartime superior, former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, who faces almost identical charges. Karadzic’s trial got under way in April 2010, but the Srebrenica component is not due to begin until next year.
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.
This way, 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.
Michael Karnavas, a defence lawyer at the tribunal, told IWPR that the court would “not want a repeat of what happened” with Milosevic.
“The counts related to Srebrenica are discrete enough that effectively what you have is a case within a case,” he said. “From a resource and efficiency standpoint, it is a clever and pragmatic move. As for the logistics, given that there are not too many trials going on now, it seems quite feasible”.
Mladic’s newly-assigned lawyer, Branko Lukic, could not be reached for comment at before this article was published.
Mladic is next due in court on August 25.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
