[NYC-L] FW: Witnesses Pull Out of Slobo Trial

[Jeton Ademaj]

i wonder who those hi-ranking french and german friends of slobo are?


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/10/international/europe/10hague.html

September 10, 2004
Witnesses Pull Out of Trial After Judges Refuse to Let Milosevic Act as His 
Own Lawyer
By MARLISE SIMONS

HE HAGUE, Sept. 9 - Just days after judges assigned two British lawyers to 
defend Slobodan Milosevic, his war crimes trial ran into new difficulties on 
Thursday as scheduled witnesses pulled out in protest.

Twelve high-ranking witnesses expected to appear this month to defend Mr. 
Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, have sent notice that they will 
not come to the tribunal here, according to Mr. Milosevic's aides. As a 
result, the session on Monday has been postponed.

Zdenko Tomanovic, one of the aides, denied that Mr. Milosevic was trying to 
discourage the witnesses from attending - the first two appeared earlier 
this week - but said that the witnesses themselves had objected to the 
proceedings after the court ruled Mr. Milosevic could not serve as his own 
lawyer.

Over strenuous protests from Mr. Milosevic, the judges in charge of the case 
appointed two lawyers to represent him after cardiologists had concurred 
that he was not fit enough to bear the strain of acting as his own lawyer. 
The trial, involving multiple war crimes charges, has been postponed more 
than a dozen times due to Mr. Milosevic's heart problems.

In recent days, he told his three judges several times that he wanted his 
right to act as his own lawyer restored and would appeal. Now, the 
court-appointed lawyers have taken the first step to appeal, following Mr. 
Milosevic's wishes, according to a document released by the court on 
Thursday. This puts the new defense team in the peculiar position of 
appealing against its own presence.

The lawyers, Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins, have cordial relations with Mr. 
Milosevic's aides, both sides agree. They have come to know each other well 
because Mr. Kay and Ms. Higgins have long attended the trial as "friends of 
the court" to ensure the fairness of the proceedings.

In court on Thursday, Mr. Kay begged witnesses chosen by Mr. Milosevic to 
testify in his support. "We welcome all Milosevic's witnesses to give 
evidence and indeed to cooperate," he said.

Refusals so far have come from four German, two Russian and five French 
witnesses, most of them former high-ranking politicians and military 
officers, according to Mr. Tomanovic, the aide to Mr. Milosevic. He also 
showed a letter addressed to Mr. Milosevic dated Sept. 8 from George Kenney, 
a former State Department official. It said: "Your defense, the defense for 
which I had consulted with you in The Hague, does not now exist. 
Consequently, I cannot in good conscience act as a 'defense witness' under 
the tribunal's current rules." If the tribunal reversed its decision, he 
said, he would appear.

Judge Patrick Robinson urged Mr. Milosevic on Thursday to cooperate, warning 
that he would be responsible if important evidence was not presented. He 
said, "The trial will nonetheless proceed and no one can say there was 
injustice."