The prosecutor seeks sanctions for the accused who “has gone too far in his contempt of court”


The judges reprimanded Slobodan Milosevic today for acting “silly” and as a “spoilt child”, while the prosecutor – noting that “the accused has gone too far in his contempt of court” – urged the Chamber to “limit the time at his disposal if he continues to act as discourteously as he has today.”

The interventions were prompted by Milosevic’s offended and angry reaction to the refusal of the Chamber to admit into evidence seven “white papers” of the Yugoslav Government about the “crimes committed by the KLA and NATO.” Milosevic tried to have those documents admitted through Vladislav Jovanovic who had handed them to the UN Secretary-General in 2000, when he was the permanent representative of the FRY in the UN. Noting that the only link Jovanovic had with those documents was to “act like a postman”, as Judge Bonomy remarked, the judges urged Milosevic to call a credible witness who would be able to explain how the information contained in the “white papers” was gathered and processed, because this would determine the weight, or evidentiary value, to be given them by the Chamber.

Milosevic responded that he would bring in a large number of judges, police investigators and other witnesses who had participated in investigating the incidents described in the seven “white papers”, but that the Chamber would have to give him additional time for that exercise.

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