The first status conference in the case against former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, accused of genocide in Bosnia, was held before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday. The conference focused on the organisation of pre-trial proceedings and deadlines for filings to be submitted by both the prosecution and the defence.
Mladic's defence lawyer Branko Lukic and his legal advisor Milos Saljic attended the hearing for the first time. After he was thrown out of the courtroom at the last hearing for obstructing proceedings and interrupting the judge, Mladic followed today's hearing calmly.
His defence was given until the end of August to respond to the prosecutorial request to sever the indictment against Mladic.
Earlier this month, the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) submitted a consolidated motion to sever the indictment against Mladic, to conduct separate trials and to amend the resulting Srebrenica indictment, the Srebrenica indictment to be tried first.
The prosecution believes that the indictment should be severed and separate trials held, first on the Srebrenica indictment and then on the Sarajevo, Municipalities and Hostages indictment.
"The Prosecution has considered several options for proceeding against Mladic. Factors which have been taken into account include Mladic's arrest at this late stage of the Tribunal's mandate, the need to ensure justice for the victims, the desirability of commencing a trial as soon as possible, and the need to plan for the contingency that Mladic's health could deteriorate," read the prosecution motion.
Mladic was arrested in May 2011 in Serbia, after nearly 16 years on the run, and transferred to the ICTY detention unit where he is awaiting the start of the trial. While on the run, he suffered a stroke which left a mark on his health.
The open part of today's hearing did not focus on Mladic's condition. Ten days ago he underwent hernia surgery within the prison system.
