Liu Daqun, judge in the Tribunal

A three judge panel has rejected the motion filed by Stojan Zupljanin and Mico Stanisic to disqualify the Chinese judge Liu Daqun from the Appeals Chamber set to hear their motion to quash the trial judgment which convicted them of crimes committed all over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.

Former Bosnian Serb police officials were sentenced to 22 years in prison each for those crimes. Last October they called on the Appeals Chamber to quash the conviction and set them free, arguing that one of the trial judges that convicted them was Danish judge Fredrik Harhoff, who has been disqualified from the chamber trying Vojislav Seselj because of his alleged bias.

Judge Liu was in the special chamber that considered Seselj's motion, and he voted against the disqualification of the Danish judge. He was in the minority. According to the defense, this casts doubts as to his ability to be impartial in his consideration of the motion filed by Zupljanin and Stanisic to quash the conviction because Judge Harhoff had taken part in passing of the judgment.

In its decision, the three-judge panel notes that the defense arguments are 'unsubstantiated' and that the position taken by the Chinese judge in Seselj's case would not lead a reasonable and informed observer to conclude that Judge Liu would be biased in his consideration of the motion filed by Stanisic and Zupljanin. Accordingly, the panel considers that 'the defense has failed to provide the necessary and reasonable indicia of Judge Liu's bias' and has rejected the motion for his disqualification.

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