"The Appeals Chamber is not convinced that the Applicants' submissions would assist in determining the issues on appeal, and thus declines to grant leave to file the Proposed Amicus Curiae Brief," reads a decision signed by Appeals Chamber Presiding Judge Theodor Meron.

The 12 prominent Western legal and military experts applied for the status of amicus curiae (friend of the court) on January 13, calling on the Appeals Chamber to reconsider, based on their expert opinion, the Trial Chamber's findings of unlawful artillery attacks by Croatian forces during 1995's military offensive known as Operation Storm.

On 15 April 2010, Generals Gotovina and Markac were found guilty, pending appeal, of participation in a joint criminal enterprise the purpose of which was to expel, during and in the aftermath of Operation Storm, the Serb population from the until then occupied areas of Croatia. Under the Trial Chamber ruling, the persecution of civilians in the first days of Operation Storm was committed through random shelling.

"The Appeals Chamber notes that the Proposed Amicus Curiae Brief addresses numerous factual issues and provides interpretations of evidence on the record," the Appeals Chamber says.

The Appeals Chamber also notes that the appendix to the brief includes the same materials General Gotovina's defence is trying to introduce as new evidence in the appeals proceedings and warns that an application for the status of amicus curiae cannot serve as a vehicle for introducing new evidence.

The Appeals Chamber also states that the expert group did not reveal relationships between two of the 12 experts with Gotovina's defence team even though it had the obligation to do so, and concludes that this "raises some additional concerns about the objectivity of the Proposed Amicus Curiae Brief." The experts in question are Geoffrey Corn, who served as an expert witness for Gotovina's defence, and Eric Talbot Jensen, who was a consultant to Gotovina's defence.

The decisions to be made by the Appeals Chamber before the appeals hearing scheduled for March include a decision on a motion by Gotovina's defence for the introduction of new evidence.

The November 4 motion refers to the introduction of 25 new documents, including the minutes of meetings of the Serbian Supreme Defence Council held in Belgrade during Operation Storm, U.S. diplomatic dispatches released by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, and expert reports by US officers on the use of artillery in the operation.

The additional evidence pertains to the departure of Serb civilians before, during and after Operation Storm, the nature of Croatian Army artillery attacks during the offensive and Gotovina's authority to make public statements.

According to the ICTY's calendar of events, the final verdict in the Gotovina-Markac case is expected to be announced in August 2013.

Commenting on the Appeals Chamber's decision, Goran Mikulicic, an attorney for General Markac, said the arguments stated in the Proposed Amicus Curiae Brief "give the Chamber something to think about."

"We believe, regardless of the fact that the application was turned down, that what is written in the application is important. The application contains numerous arguments which give the Chamber something to think about," Mikulicic told the press.