Home



PRALJAK ‘VICTIM OF CONSPIRACY’

2013-10-08 THE HAGUE



At the first status conference after the trial judgment, Slobodan Praljak complains that the Tribunal’s Registry has set up a ‘conspiracy’ against him. Praljak is critical of the fact that the documents pertaining to his financial status have been filed as ‘confidential’ and has called for their disclosure. Also, Praljak promises that if his request is not granted, he will make the documents available ‘urbi et orbi’ to defend his dignity

At the first status conference after the trial judgment of the six former Herceg Bosna leaders, Slobodan Praljak complained to Judge Theodor Meron that the Tribunal’s Registry had set up a ‘conspiracy’ against him. The result of the purported conspiracy is the order issued by the Registry to Praljak, demanding that he reimburse the 3,293,000 euro paid by the Tribunal over the past eight years to Praljak’s defense team from the legal assistance fund.

Praljak invoked his earlier motion for the reconsideration of the Registry decision on his financial status. As he insisted, the issue has never been raised with him in the past eight years. The ‘facts’ he listed in the 103 pages of his motion were not translated or taken into account, Praljak added. According to Praljak, the whole procedure was launched ‘without any evidence and verification’. ‘I here claim publicly….that the Registry has set up a ‘conspiracy’ against me, without any legal basis, in a totally uncivilized manner’, Praljak said.

Praljak was upset because the documents pertaining to his financial status had been ‘declared confidential’. He wants them to be unsealed. If his request was not granted, Praljak promised he would defend his dignity by ‘making the documents available urbi et orbi’, ‘to the City and the World’, in the manner of papal addresses on Roman Catholic feasts.

Praljak obviously intended to elaborate his claim about the purported conspiracy set up by the Registry, but was interrupted by Judge Meron. The judge told him the issue had already been adjudicated and invited him to read Meron’s decision of 7 October 2013, in which he denied Praljak’s request for the reconsideration of the Registry’s decision. The Tribunal’s president told the accused that he had not provided any new facts that would warrant reconsideration.

The former Herceg Bosna leaders didn’t have any complaints as to the conditions in the Detention Unit, apart from Berislav Pusic who complained about the ‘monotonous diet’ that was ‘quite bad’; the prisoners are forced to buy their own food. Pusic also has health problems, just like Valentic Coric, who has been under ‘intense medical supervision’ because of a heart complaint. Jadranko Prlic, Milivoj Petkovic and Bruno Stojic didn’t have any complaints.


Sharing
FB TW LI EMAIL




Linked Reports