The defence team for General Ante Gotovina on Friday called on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Appeals Council to disregard new arguments presented by the prosecution at an appeal hearing on Monday, which were never stated during the trial, the ICTY reported.
"The consideration of these new arguments would constitute a flagrant violation of the Appellant’s fundamental right of detailed and timely notice of charges and the Appeals Chamber’s repeated orders concerning the permitted scope of arguments at the appeal hearing. These new arguments should therefore be disregarded," the defence said in its supplemental brief.
In the brief the defence said new arguments that were not permitted to be raised were - lawful artillery attacks constituted the act of deportation; use of artillery in the four towns during Operation Storm constituted a disproportionate attack; the use of MRLs and T-130 artillery was “inherently indiscriminate” in an urban environment; and, the Trial Chamber was able to infer a Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) to deport Serb civilians from the Brijuni transcript itself.
