JURIST - Paper Chase: ICTY prosecutor updates Security Council on progress

[JURIST] Prosecutor Serge Brammertz [official profile] of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Thursday reported [text, PDF] the court's Completion Strategy to the UN Security Council [official website]. In his address [press release, PDF], Brammertz updated the Council on the progress of pending cases, including the cases of Ratko Mladic [ICTY case materials; JURIST news archive], a former Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, and Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case summary, PDF; JURIST news archive], a former Bosnian Serb leader. The prosecutor said he was grateful for continued international support but cited two main grievances: first, Serbia's failure to investigate and prosecute those who aided the fugitives and second, Bosnia and Herzegovina's slow progress in processing investigative materials. Brammertz reported that Serbia has promised a more in-depth investigation into the fugitive networks. He urged BiH to expedite transfers of materials to the ICTY.

On Tuesday, judges from the ICTY began a five-day visit [JURIST report] to locations relevant to the indictment of Karadzic. In May, Brammertz announced that Mladic is mentally and physically fit to stand trial. The ICTY had ordered a medical exam [JURIST report] of him in November of last year upon his lawyers' protest that their client is not fit to stand trial. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges two months after the ICTY delayed [JURIST reports] his trial based on the defense lawyers' request to do so in order to sift through the extensive amount of files. A day after, the trial chamber of the ICTY ordered [JURIST report] a six-week suspension of the trial in the case against Karadzic to allow the defense lawyers to review 32,000 pages and 200 hours of video material that the prosecution sent to them in January.