Den Haag, 18 September 2002
On behalf of Mr. Milosevic the Dutch counsel of Mr. Milosevic
Nico Steijnen has filed a complaint against the Dutch member of
the amici curiae trio Wladimiroff at the disciplary tribunal of the Dutch Bar
Association.
In the Dutch daily Haagsche Courant edition of September 12,
2002, Wladimiroff stated in an interview inter alia:
"It is for sure that,
when his process would relate only to Kosovo and one would draw up the balance
now Milosevic would be convicted. Clearly a linkage has been established between
the army and the police, the massacres in Kosovo and Milosevic."
and:
"The second part of the process, in which the crimes in Bosnia and Croatia
will be at the centre, will be more easy for the prosecutors", Wladimirof
thinks. "They have had more time to prepare and they know better the problems.
So it cannot be a problem for them to fix completely the evidence against him"
Mr. Milosevic has strongly protested against these pronouncements and he has
asked for measures against Wladimiroff. He also demanded access to the press on
his turm, in order to get the opportunity to repair the damage, brought about by
Wladimiroff upon him.
However, routinely this was refused by the so called
tribunal, which gave order to Wladimiroff to deliver a written statement on the
matter.
Already in an earlier stage Mr. Milosevic had opted for legal action
against the assignment of the amici curiae, especially Wladimiroff. However, due
to logistic problems this had failed to occur untill now.
In the complaint
filed at the disciplinary tribunal Wladimiroff is charged for:
1) usurpation of the right of Mr. Milosevic to conduct his
own defence, without any interference;
2) active interference with the
defence of Mr. Milosevic, despite the explicit will of the last one;
3)
fundamental thwart of the defence strategy of mr. Milosevic, which is based upon
the fact that the tribunal is to be considered illegal, by his, Wladimiroff's,
performance, based upon exactly the opposite, namely upon the assumption that
the trubunal were a legal institution;
4)So violation of Article 6, par 3 ad
c European Human Rights Convention, stipulating: "Everyone charged with a
criminal offence has the following minimum rights: c. todefend himself in person
(..)";
5)violation of the basic principle for all lawyers all around the
world that a lawyer shall only take up the defence of somebody, when this is
based upon the consent of the one concerned;
6)violation of the 'praesumtio
innocentiae' towards Mr. Milosevic;
7)Inflicting heavy damage to his case by
, as being a sort of imposed co-counsel, rammed throught the throat of mr.
Milosevic, beforehand declaring him guilty;
8)violation of a number of
specific Dutch regulations, based upon the Dutch Law for lawyers.
