By Milorad Ivanovic
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia � Lawyers paid by the
United Nations to defend Yugoslav war-crimes suspects often face demands that
they kick back a portion of their fees to the clients they are hired to
represent.
As a result, the tribunal at
The Hague has become a lucrative source of cash, not only for lawyers hired to
defend soldiers and politicians accused of crimes against humanity, but also for
the defendants and their families back
home.
Officials at the U.N.-sponsored
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, as it is formally
known, confirmed that they began investigating the practice this year. No
details on their findings have been made
public.
Such charges are likely to resonate in
the United States, which pays 23 percent of the regular U.N. budget, from which
the tribunal gets nearly $100 million
annually.
In all but a few cases � one
exception being former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who is defending
himself � the tribunal pays defendants' lawyers a tax-exempt salary of as much
as $200,000.
Hardly any lawyers can expect to
get appointed unless they agree to share the fee with the client, said Zika
Rakonjac, author of a forthcoming book on Yugoslav lawyers who practice at The
Hague tribunal.
He said 1,000 people, including
family members of those on trial, have benefited from the
money.
"I know of families who used the money
obtained from the lawyers to open up supermarket chains, luxury shops and
pharmacies, and three coffee shops are currently being built," Mr. Rakonjac said
in a recent interview.
"One of the lawyers told
me that his client did not ask for a penny, but he had helped his [client�s]
family through various donations amounting to 80,000 deutsche marks," Mr.
Rakonjac said.
The euro replaced the German
mark earlier this year at a rate of two marks to one euro. When converted to
dollars at the present exchange rate, the amount would be about
$37,000.
Mr. Rakonjac said war-crimes
defendants usually ask for a kickback of as much as 30 percent but in most cases
settle for 10 percent to 15 percent.
"Everyone
wants their cut � Serbs, Croats and Muslims alike. The entire floor of the
detention center in Scheveningen heard not too long ago when a Croat said to his
counsel: 'If you don't give 10,000 deutsche marks [about $4,600] to my wife,
I'll have you removed from the roster'" of appointed defense
lawyers.
In May, Krstan Simic, a lawyer from
Republika Srpska, the Serbian republic within Bosnia-Herzegovina, told a daily
that Zoran Zigic, a Serb accused of crimes in the Omarska detention camp, is
building a house with money from two of his defense
attorneys.
Reports of financial arrangements
between lawyers and defendants surfaced during the trial of Dusko Tadic, the
first suspect to be tried by the tribunal.
In
1996, Mr. Tadic dismissed his attorney, Milan Vujin, accusing him in the
courtroom of deliberately withholding evidence that was favorable to the
defendant.
Mr. Vujin was subsequently fined
and deleted from the tribunal's roster.
But
Mr. Vujin's colleagues, who asked for anonymity, said the conflict revolved
around money and that Mr. Tadic used the accusation as a means of
revenge.
Mr. Vujin had refused to buy and equip
a deli in Republika Srpska on Mr. Tadic's behalf, his colleagues
said.
Privately, many lawyers in Belgrade
concede that money has been at the heart of most disputes between attorneys and
their clients. Some have begun to speak
out.
Branislav Tapuskovic, chairman of the
Administrative Board of the Chamber of Lawyers of Serbia, said that partly from
his own experience he has no doubts the practice is
widespread.
"Three years ago, when I defended
Zdravko Mucic, one of the co-defendants on the case, Esad Landzo, changed his
lawyer all of a sudden. This was then discussed at a special tribunal
session.
"I was there when Landzo's lawyer,
Mustafa Brackovic, stated in front of the tribunal that Landzo had fired him
because he refused to share the honorarium with him," Mr. Tapuskovic
said.
Mr. Brackovic confirmed the
account.
"Landzo demanded that I 'support' him
with 6,000 deutsche marks a month," he said. Six thousand marks is about
$2,750.
"He even put that in writing as an
indirect condition for me to continue representing him," he said. "I didn't want
to even discuss it. The Trial Chamber overruled my dismissal, but I then
resigned because the whole thing was morally
unacceptable."
The "racket has been going on
the whole time," Mr. Brackovic said.
"Everyone
knows about it, but obviously those involved are not keen to talk about it in
public."
Toma Fila, a Belgrade lawyer who
represents a war-crimes suspect, flatly denied that the practice
exists.
"I think the stories originate from
less successful lawyers or those who are unscrupulous in their efforts to get
paid. Those who have no integrity in Belgrade won't have any integrity in The
Hague either," Mr. Fila said.
"I've been
rumored to have offered half of my fee to my client Mladjo Radic, but the truth
is that I have represented him for three years now and haven't given him a share
of my fee.
"But there is something you need to
understand: Every honest person would help the defendants' families to survive
and to see their relatives in Scheveningen at least once a
year.
"A visit to The Hague, including travel
and accommodation costs, comes to 2,000 deutsche marks [about $900]. This is no
concession to blackmail but rather an act of good will and a sign of a humane
attitude," Mr. Fila said.
Nenad Petrusic,
legal counsel to Gen. Radislav Krstic, a Bosnian Serb recently found guilty of
genocide in Srebrenica, said he would never agree to work on a tribunal case if
a defendant demanded kickbacks from him.
"Gen.
Krstic is an extremely honest, fair and highly ethical man, and something like
that, I'm positive, would have never occurred to him. But I'll be frank with
you. I'm renting an apartment in The Hague, and when I'm not there, my client's
family members have it at their disposal. They have no money to pay for a hotel,
and I don't think I'm breaking any regulations by offering to let them stay
there," Mr. Petrusic said.
Tribunal officials
say lead counsels on even the least complex cases can expect to make around
$77,000 in pretrial phases, $100,000 during trials; and as much as $50,000
during appeals. In the most complicated cases, the figures double, officials at
The Hague said.
The Netherlands has exempted
the fees from taxes.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020528-84636216.htm
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