Judges Stefan Trechsel (Switzerland) and Arpad Prandler (Hungary) were today sworn in as ad litem, or temporary, judges of the Tribunal. Their arrival brings the number of ad litem judges serving at the Tribunal to nine.

The two Judges were appointed by the Secretary General to serve on the Prlić et al. case, which involves six former high ranking political and military officials of the so-called "Croatian Community (and later Republic) of Herceg-Bosna", charged with the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and other non-Croats who lived in the area. The trial is scheduled to start later this year.

The biographies for Judges Trechsel and Prandler, as well as all other permanent and ad litem judges, can be found on the Tribunal’s website at www.un.org/icty/glance/index.htm.

The Tribunal has 16 permanent judges elected by the UN General Assembly, as well as a maximum at any one time of 12 ad litem judges. The ad litem judges are appointed to sit on a specific trial. This appointment is made by the Secretary-General at the request of the Tribunal's president, from a pool of 27 judges elected by the UN General Assembly.

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Courtroom proceedings can be followed on the Tribunal’s website at www.un.org/icty.