Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said in Sarajevo on Tuesday the prosecution would do its best to have the trial of wartime Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic expedited as much as possible.
Brammertz made the statement during a visit to the Bosnian capital ahead of submitting a six-month report to the UN Security Council on the cooperation of countries in the region with the ICTY.
He recalled that the prosecution had requested two separate trials in Mladic's case, but that judges turned down the motion.
We are now investigating if we can further reduce the indictment and how we could use written evidence more than before since personal testimonies consume the most time, Brammertz said, adding that the prosecution would insist that the ICTY admit as many previously accepted facts as possible.
Answering a question about speculation that Mladic is seriously ill, Brammertz said the prosecution did not have any information that would lead it to conclude that he was unfit to stand trial.
Mladic is indicted for genocide in Srebrenica and the terror campaign against the capital of Sarajevo that lasted several years, as well as for the persecution of populations throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and the taking of UN staff as hostages.
He was arrested in May in Serbia after almost 16 years of hiding, and was transferred to The Hague where he is awaiting the start of his trial.
