Gotovina and Markac have been sentenced by the Trial Chamber to 24 years and 18 years in prison respectively for war crimes Croatian forces committed against Serb civilians during and in the wake of Operation Storm in Croatia in the summer of 1995.
The second status conference in the appeal case was very brief. Judge Meron asked the generals about their physical and mental health. General Gotovina said he was all right, while Markac said that his health was not good, but that the health services in the tribunal's detention unit were taking adequate measures.
Meron recalled that Gotovina's defence team had asked for admission of new evidence and that two more applications for amicus curiae status had been filed, adding that the Chamber would decide on them in due course.
Gotovina's team has requested admission of 25 new pieces of evidence, including minutes of the meetings of the Serbian Supreme Defence Council that had taken place in Belgrade at the time of Operation Storm, a US diplomatic cable released by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, and expert reports by US army officers. The evidence concerns the circumstances surrounding the departure of Serb civilians before, in the course of and after Operation Storm, the nature of Croatian artillery attacks during the offensive, and Gotovina's authority regarding public speeches.
Markac's lawyer Goran Mikulicic said that the announcement that the appeal hearing would be held in spring was "good news". "We expected that the hearing would be held much later, because it had been said earlier that it might be held as late as the autumn of this year. The Hague tribunal seems to have decided to step up the procedure, which we welcome."
Mikulicic said that this meant that a final judgement in this case could be delivered by the end of this year or in the first half of 2013, rather than in 2014 as had been said earlier.
Both Mikulicic and Gotovina's attorneys Luka Misetic and Greg Kehoe said that the application by a group of 12 Western legal and military experts, who have applied for amicus curiae status in the Gotovina and Markac case and asked the tribunal to reconsider the findings of the Trial Chamber concerning unlawful artillery attacks during Operation Storm, was fair and professional.
The Croatian government applied for amicus curiae status last year. The content of its application is not known because it is classified as secret.