The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday granted a motion by the prosecution to postpone a status conference in the Gotovina-Markac case and set it for September 29, the Hague-based UN court said on Thursday.
After a status conference in the case against Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac was initially scheduled for September 12, the prosecution asked that it be postponed until all filings were submitted in appeals proceedings following the non-final ruling.
Recalling that the prosecution had until September 12 to submit a response to the appeal filed by the two generals' defence teams and that after that, under the court's rules of procedure and evidence, a 15-day period would start running for the defence to submit its response, the prosecutors proposed that the status conference be held after that, on September 28 at the earliest.
The defence teams for Gotovina and Markac did not oppose the motion, so Judge Theodor Meron ruled that the status conference be held on September 29.
The defence counsel for Gotovina and Markac on August 1 submitted an appeal against the non-final ruling in the case sentencing them to 24 and 18 years in prison respectively for war crimes committed during and in the wake of the 1995 Croatian army and police operation "Storm".
