Hague tribunal takes lesson from Milosevic's case, that is new decision

The UN mechanism for the International Criminal Court, M The IPT, in The Hague, adopted an unusual solution last month for perhaps the most ongoing problem in the last two decades of the tribunal's existence.

His solution was intended to address the case of a defendant considered fit to stand trial, but whose disease significantly slows down and disrupts the course of justice.

MICT judges established a legal precedent when they allowed former State Security Chief Jovica Stanisic's retrial in Serbia to continue in the absence of the accused, who is chronically ill.

Under the court's decision, Stanisic, 65, would follow procedures via video transmission from his home in Belgrade, when the court meets from its summer holidays in mid-August.

Stanisic is accused of crimes against humanity in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1991-1995 conflicts.

It is set to remain on provisional release, under strict conditions, at least by the end of September, and possibly until the prosecution's closure. He has relinquished his right to be present in the courtroom and will be represented by his lawyers.

Before Stanisic, no defendant has been provisionally released from the UN tribunal during the phase of presenting evidence to a trial, except for gravely ill Goran Hadzic and Momir Talic.

Stanisic's condition weakens his health, but does not threaten his life, said Dutch and Serbian specialists.

But since his 2003 arrest, his illness has greatly influenced the progress of his case in The Hague. He has been held in prison for more than five years and has spent more than six years on temporary release.

After a long discussion about Stanishic's possibility to stand trial, the first attempt to launch proceedings in 2008 failed because the accused refused to give up his right to attend and participate in court through a video connection to his cell phone.

In 2013, Stanisic and his former assistant, Franco Simatovic, were acquitted of charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, I TY. Two years later, the appeal annulled their acquittal on the charges and ordered retrial of the case.

Now the court's extraordinary decision to allow Stanisic to stay in Belgrade and follow the remote procedures is expected to allow the retrial to continue at a much faster pace than before.

Use of Court Fear

Care for the accused's health has never been a mere humanitarian gesture of high-profile trials at the ICTY.

Defense has often used it as a powerful tool to exercise control over judicial procedures.

Emmmatic is the case of Vojislav Sheshel, the Serbian ultra nationalist charged with crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia, Vojvodina and Bosnia from 1991 to 1993.

After serving almost 12 years in prison, Sheshel, 62, was provisionally released in November 2014 by the court after he refused to undergo liver cancer chemotherapy.

Without treatment, the state of Seheshel “could have ended in death”, the chairman of the Jean-Claude Antonetti panel later agreed.

So the judge's fear that the defendant could die if he was detained in custody prompted the early release of SESHI, although he unconsciously refused to respect the conditions under which he was allowed to return to Serbia and then also refused to return to The Hague to hear the verdict on his trial.

The ICTY's fears lie in the UN tribunal's worst trauma to Slobodan Milosevic's early death in March 2006, just a few weeks before his trial ended on genocide charges.

Sheshel-who has declared himself to be the worst enemy of Judge” has successfully exploited fears in the past when he entered hunger strikes only for months after Milosevic's death.

To save Schehel from himself, the court later agreed to remove the “avokat alert” she had appointed for the defendant, who previously represented himself.

“S recently, it is the accused Seshel who is entitled to accept or refuse treatment, even if he dies in prison,” Judge Antonett wrote in reasoning on the provisional release of Schehel.

However, he continued, “The judges must do everything they can to enable the accused to continue living”.

Sheshel not only lived after his provisional release, but also, as he boasted publicly, he has reached “defeats” and cancer and the Court and has been voted to return to the Serbian parliament.

The court later, in March 2016, cleared Schehel of the charges even though the prosecution has launched an appeal. However, SESH has pledged that he will never return to The Hague tribunal on his own.

Request for treatment abroad

Defence lawyers for former Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladic are waiting for the outcome of his trial on genocide charges to play with their health card.

In March, the defence said Mladic, 75, should be allowed to continue his treatment in Russia, pending the court's decision.

Citing Serbian and Russian experts, Mladic's lawyers claimed his situation “has deteriorated” after “six years of inefficient treatment” in The Hague.

These judicial procedures could tragicly follow the case of Slobodan Milosevic, who died in custody, pending a decision on the provisional release to go to Russia,” warned Mladic's lawyers.

Prior to his arrest in May 2011, Mladic had suffered three heart attacks that severely damaged his speech and almost paralyzed his right side of his body.

In addition to other diseases, including pneumonia, arteriosclerosis, diabetes and hypertension, a notable improvement in Mladic's condition has been reported since the court by specialists inside and abroad.

In June 2013, after almost a year of trial, Mladic publicly accepted it with his mouth.

I won't commend the court. I said ugly things about him. But if I hadn't come here, I'd already have died in time,” he said.

Mladic later said that he “was deeply humiliated” doctors “who dragged me out of the grave with both feet”.

Had it not been for your care, for your medication, and God's will, I would have met St. Peter in time,” he added.

However, in his motion for provisional release, Mladic's defence dismissed those words of assessment as “complations and thanks from the self-damaged defendant”.

But judges denied his provisional release, deciding there is no “any acute medical issues that remain unresolved”.

However, the decision acknowledged that it faced several health risks “that correspond to Mladic's age and medical incidents in the past, mainly prior to his arrest”.

Both the ICTY and MICT have been delayed far in the past to prove that the detainees have medical care in line with the highest international standards.

In May 2016, when former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic publicly speculated about the <x0nd achievement of mountain diseases” in the UN Pre-primage Unit, where the defendants were detained after some of the detainees died, the court immediately ordered an investigation.

A team of Dutch experts in February found that there was no “evidence of a cancer group or of an increase in cancer”.

According to their report, there have been 10 cases of cancer among 170 people held in the UN's Pre-trial Unit over the past 20 years.

This rate is considered similar to that in the former Yugoslav population.

However, as tribunal defendants age, it seems likely that their health will continue to be an important factor in some of the judicial procedures until the final decision is issued. /son