The start of the trial has been postponed several times because of frequent changes in the defence team and the fact that the Trial Chambers of the Tribunal have been busy with other trials


The trial of Sefer Halilovic should start in December 2004 or January 2005, announced Judge O-gon Kwon at a status conference today. "The case is now ready to proceed" to trial, the judge concluded, noting that the trial had been postponed several times because of frequent changes in the defence team and because the Trial Chamber of the Tribunal were busy trying other cases. This case will probably be taken on by the Trial Chamber hearing the Srebrenica case, against the accused Vidoje Blagojevic and Dragan Jokic.

Sefer Halilovic, who surrendered voluntarily to the Tribunal in September 2001, has been provisionally released pending trial. He is charged with command responsibility for the murders of Croat civilians in the villages of Grabovica and Uzdol in September 1993. At that time, the prosecutor alleges, he was first the deputy commander and then Chief of Staff of the BH Army Supreme Command and was in charge of Operation Neretva 93; the two villages were captured as part of that operation.

Sharing