The defence lawyers for two Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, sentenced by the UN war crimes tribunal to 24 and 18 years in prison pending appeal, will submit the announcement of appeals against the ICTY ruling on Monday. The Office of the prosecutor did not wish to reveal if the prosecution would appeal.
Under the ICTY regulation, the deadline for submitting the announcement of the appeal against the ruling handed down on April 15 which found Gotovina and Markac guilty of war crimes committed in the 1995 Operation Storm.
The attorneys for Gotovina and Markac, Luka Misetic and Goran Mikulicic, said they would submit the announcement of the appeals on Monday. The office of the Prosecutor on Friday declined to say if the prosecution would appeal, given that the Chief Prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, was on a business trip. In their closing arguments last year, the prosecution asked that Gotovina be sentenced to 27 years, Markac to 23 and the third general whom the ICTY acquitted, Ivan Cermak, to 17 years in prison.
The defence lawyers declined to say what the appeals would be based on, adding however, that a new lawyer joined the defence team, Swiss attorney Guenael Mettraux.
Mettraux successfully defended before the ICTY Bosnian Army general Sefer Halilovic and Macedonian Interior Minister Ljubo Boskoski.
Lawyer Goran Mikulicic declined to reveal the name of a British lawyer with who negotiations are under way to join the two Croatian general defence team.
After the announcement of appeals are submitted, the ICTY regulations foresee a 75-day deadline for the the submission of the appeal. After that, the other party in the process has 40 days to respond to the announcement and another 15 days to submit rebuttals.
After the expiration of those deadlines the ICTY Appeals Chamber will set the hearing date.
Evidence can be introduced in the appeals process, but only those that were not available during the trial.
The appeals process usually does not last longer than a year.
