The Trial Chamber trying General Rasim Delic concluded that the prosecution violated its obligation when it failed to disclose on time a series of documents from the Islamic Cultural Center in Milan. The defense seeks permission from the Trial Chamber to repeat its cross-examination of the prosecution witness through whom the prosecution tendered into evidence the recording of Delic’s address at the ‘farewell feast’ of the El Mujahid Detachment in Zenica


The Trial Chamber trying Rasim Delic, former commander of the BH Army General Staff, concluded that the OTP violated its obligation to disclose the exculpatory material. The prosecution failed to disclose on time the documents seized in the Islamic Cultural Center in Milan. The Trial Chamber ordered the prosecution to take necessary steps to make sure that the entire material is identified and disclosed to the defense, according to Rule 68 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

The material in question is a series of documents the Italian government seized in the Islamic Cultural Center in Milan and handed over to the OTP in March 2006. The documents were supposed to be disclosed to General Delic’s defense at the same time. However, as the prosecutor admitted, they were stored in the Tribunal’s electronic data base and they were ‘forgotten’ until the very end of the prosecution case when they were ‘found’ and disclosed to the defense.

The defense believes those are ‘key’ documents shedding ‘an entirely new light’ on General Delic case. Among the documents are combat reports of the El Mujahid Detachment. The prosecution charged the former commander of the BH Army General Staff on the basis of command responsibility with crimes committed by the Detachment members. Because of the belated disclosure of the material the defense believes it was denied the opportunity to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses about it. It asked for the extension of its witness list and to be allowed to recall some of them. The Trial Chamber granted the requests.

In its latest motion, the defense sought leave from the Trial Chamber to repeat its cross-examination of a former El Mujahid Detachment member who gave evidence as protected witness PW9 in mid-November 2007. Through him, the prosecution tendered into evidence the controversial recording of the speech the former commander of the BH Army General Staff made at the ‘farewell feast’ for the El Mujahid Detachment in Zenica on 1 January 1996. If the Trial Chamber grants this request, this witness will be recalled before the Tribunal in The Hague in two weeks’ time.

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