Press Release · Communiqué de presse
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)

TADIC CASE: DEFENCE COUNSEL APPEALS AGAINST SENTENCING JUDGMENT OF 14 JULY 1997

On Saturday 9 August 1997, Defence counsel for the accused Dusko TADIC filed a Notice of Appeal against the Sentencing Judgment handed down by Trial Chamber II on 14 July 1997.

Grounds of Appeal

Defence appeals on grounds of errors of law invalidating the decision and errors of fact which has occasioned a miscarriage of justice. According to the Defence, the Trial Chamber has made the following errors:

1. The Chamber failed to take sufficient account of the "relative unimportance" of the accused in the overall campaign in Opstina Prijedor;

2. Since "the punishment should fit the offender not merely the crime", the Chamber failed to take sufficient account of the accused's personality, his "ruined future" both in Republika Srpska and in any other country, his "inevitable isolation" while serving the sentence in a foreign country, and his family status;

3. The Chamber could not pronounce a sentence of 20 years imprisonment since this is the longest possible sentence as an alternative to the death penalty under Yugoslav law;

4. The Chamber erred in principle in assessing that the minimum period of imprisonment should be 10 years;

5. The Chamber erred in principle in not ensuring that the accused was given full credit for the time spent in custody in Germany.

Conclusion

The Defence proposes that the Appeals Chamber"reverse or revise the Judgment rendered by the Trial Chamber"in accordance with Article 25(2) of the Statute

The Defence also states that the Notice of Appeal is "without prejudice to the accused Dusko Tadic's contentions in the Notice of Appeal against conviction" and "keeps the right to expose some other reasons in the Appeal Brief".