Appeals Chamber Excludes Three Judges in Ratko Mladić Case

THE HAGUE, (Patria) - The Mechanism for International Tribunals has accepted the request of the Defence of the former Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) Ratko Mladić for the exclusion of three judges from the appeals proceedings due to alleged bias, BIRN reports.

Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti accepted the Defence request to exclude Judges Theodor Meron, Carmel Agius, and Daqun Liu from the appeals proceedings.

As Antonetti stated in his decision, Judges Meron, Agius, and Liu „act in a biased manner“, given that in earlier cases in The Hague they had made certain conclusions concerning Ratko Mladić.

Antonetti decided on this request after the President of the Mechanism for International Tribunals, Meron, recused himself from the decision, given that the submission also concerns him.

“The responsibility for making this decision lies with the judge with the longest tenure, given that I am the subject of the submission and at the same time the President of the Mechanism”, Meron stated in the recusal decision.

Lawyers Branko Lukić and Dragan Ivetić submitted a request to exclude Judges Meron, Agius, and Liu from the appeals proceedings in Mladić's trial because they are “biased”. In separate submissions, Mladić's lawyers cited parts of judgments written by Judges Meron, Agius, and Liu, in which, in the lawyers' opinion, “unacceptable conclusions concerning Mladić” were reached.

Regarding Meron, it is noted that this judge chaired the chambers that convicted Radislav Krstić and Zdravko Tolimir for genocide in Srebrenica, and that these decisions stated that Mladić “intended to kill Bosnian Muslims”, and that he had knowledge of the illegal activities of his subordinates.

Mladić's lawyers indicated that Agius was a member of the chamber that convicted Vujadin Popović, Ljubiša Beara, Drago Nikolić, Radivoje Miletić, Vinko Pandurević, Ljubomir Borovčanin, and Milan Gvero, while Liu participated in reaching the decision in the case against Vidoje Blagojević and Dragan Jokić.

The Tribunal sentenced Mladić, the former Chief of Staff of the VRS, to life imprisonment in November last year, finding him guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising the population of Sarajevo through prolonged shelling and sniping, and taking members of UNPROFOR hostage.

Mladić was acquitted of the charge of genocide in six other Bosnian municipalities.

Appeals against the verdict were filed by both the Defence and the Hague prosecutors, and the final verdict was expected to be delivered next year.

Antonetti – who presided over the first-instance Chamber that acquitted Vojislav Šešelj – appointed a new Chamber in the Mladić case composed of Judges Mparany Mamy Richard Rajohnson, Gberdao Gustave Kam, and Elizabeth Ibanda-Nahamya.