The TRIBUNAL (15 page)

    The judge looked down at Kevin sternly.

    “This is strike two, Mr. Anderson. You first showed bad judgment in taking on this case while you were seeking a job with the other side. Now, you delivered discovery materials to the Serbian secret police. I’m warning you. As they say in your country, ‘One more strike and you’re out.’”

    Kevin was relieved not to be going to jail, but annoyed that Judge Davidson didn’t dismiss outright the contempt. He was intending to hold it over Kevin’s head as a threat during the remainder of the case.

    “Third and finally,” Judge Davidson continued, looking down at his book again, “all pretrial motions must be filed within thirty days. A hearing on those motions will be held in sixty days, on December 1st. Trial will begin on January 8th.”

    Judge Davidson quickly left the bench, leaving no doubt that his orders were final.

    Kevin got up and walked back to Draga, who was being handcuffed for his departure to the prison. “You can release the room you saved for me,” Kevin said. “And it looks like you’re going to get your speedy trial.”

    “Now I just need to get the football scores from yesterday,” Draga said.

    “I could have gone to jail here and all you can think of is
football
?

    The guards moved Draga toward the door.

    “I’ll be working my butt off for the next three months,” Kevin called after him, “while you’re studying the sports section.”

    When Kevin got home that night, Ellen had big news. “Dad, I have a loose tooth,” she exclaimed as he walked in the door. “Look!” She showed him a tooth near the back of her mouth that moved from side to side.

    “Great! Does the tooth fairy come in Holland?”

    “We’re going to find out. I hope the tooth comes out before I go to bed.”

    Kevin had already told Diane about the favorable ruling at the contempt hearing, but at dinner he gave her and Ellen more details about his day in court.

    “Is that mean old guy going to be the judge at Draga’s trial?” Ellen asked with one hand in her mouth wiggling her tooth.

    “Fortunately, he’ll only be one of three judges. For our pretrial motions and the trial, the whole trial chamber will be involved.”

    “Do you know who the other judges are?” Diane asked.

    “The presiding judge is a woman, Juan Orozco of Chile. She was a Justice of the Chilean Supreme Court, and has been at the Tribunal for two years. I’ve heard that she’s a nice person and a fair judge, but that Judge Davidson takes over in court. Sometimes he even rules on objections without consulting her.”

    “What about the other judge?” Ellen asked, carefully selecting a hard roll to try to dislodge the tooth.

    “Judge Francisco Linares of the Philippines. He was President of the Philippine Senate before becoming a judge at the Tribunal. He’s been a judge for less than a year, but from what I hear he’s brought with him the strong law and order mentality prevalent in his country.”

    “Just the kind of judge you would have wanted in the states,” Diane said.

    “You’re right,” Kevin said wearily.

    The phone interrupted their dinner.

    “Will you get it, Ellen?” Diane asked. “It’s probably for you anyway.”

    The Andersons routinely received two or three calls a night from Ellen’s classmates with questions about their homework. Ellen had already established herself as one of the brainy kids in her class.

    “I’m busy with my tooth, can you get it, Dad?” Ellen asked as she positioned the roll under her loose tooth in preparation for a big bite.

    Kevin got up and answered the phone. “Ellen’s Homework Service.”

    Ellen turned bright red. “That’s the last time I let you answer the phone.” She gave Kevin the evil eye as he handed her the phone. “Don’t mind my dad,” she said to her friend apologetically. “He’s kinda weird.”

    Kevin and Diane continued their conversation while Ellen looked up something in her math book. “I did get some good news, today,” Kevin said. “My investigator, Mihajlo Golic, came up with some information on Draga’s kidnapping.”

    “The big guy we saw at Madurodam yesterday?”

    “Yeah. He got copies of Belgrade police reports. The police believe the kidnappers were paid by people working with the U.N. Security Forces.”

    “What are you going to do?”

    “Well, it’s not exactly airtight proof, but it’s enough to support a motion to dismiss the case based on an illegal arrest. We’ll see what the prosecution comes back with.”

    The next morning, Kevin and Ellen left on their bicycles together. Ellen had wiggled her tooth out last night and was exclaiming over the shiny Euro coin the tooth fairy had left her. “Where do you think the tooth fairy gets the foreign money?” she asked Kevin.

    “I don’t know. Maybe there’s a currency exchange booth at the fairy airport.”

    Ellen headed north to the American School, while Kevin went south to The Hague.

    From his office in the Tribunal, Kevin called Nihudian.

    “I can’t find an investigator to work for Draga,” Nihudian reported. “I think I talked to every investigator in Sarajevo.”

    “Damn, this defense lawyer job is tough. I used to have all kinds of investigators at my disposal. FBI, DEA, Secret Service. Now I can’t even find anyone to help.”

    “I have an idea, Kevin. How about if I do the investigation, with the help of the students in my history classes? I’m not experienced in this kind of thing, but I would work hard and it would be a great learning opportunity for my students.”

    Kevin thought for a minute. He had no real alternative. “We could give it a try. If it seems like too much work or if it makes you uncomfortable, let me know.”

    “I would be honored to assist you, Kevin. I know you will be fair with the witnesses, so I have nothing to be ashamed of in helping you. And I owe you so much.”

    “You don’t owe me anything. You already paid my fee, remember?”

    Kevin felt better after talking to Nihudian. He wasn’t a professional investigator, but he had been a policeman and was someone Kevin trusted. The latter counted for a lot these days.

    After spending the rest of the week researching his other pretrial motions, Kevin headed over to the detention center for his regular Friday afternoon meeting with Draga. His client would have a fit if Kevin didn’t show up in time to make their weekend football picks.

    Kevin decided to pick up some
pannekoeken
for Draga and the guards. These were huge Dutch pancakes, the size of a Frisbee, which were made with fruit, cheese, meat, or just powdered sugar on top. The Dutch ate them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

    “Have you ever had
pannekoeken
?” Kevin asked Draga when the two men met in the interview room.

    “Pan-a-what-kin?”

    Kevin opened the box and showed them to Draga.

    “From the size of the portions, I like them already,” Draga said.

    As the two men dug in – cutting the large, thin pancakes with plastic knives – Draga pulled out the sports section and a piece of paper.

    “You got lucky last weekend,” he said. “You’re ahead by 50 Euros. But not for long.”

    “If you want to give your money away, I’ll take it. Let’s see the lineup for this week.”

    Draga handed Kevin the paper and went back to work on his food.

    “These are good,” Draga said through a mouthful.

    After Kevin had made his picks and endured Draga’s predictions of doom, Kevin brought up the case. “I want to be clear with you what motions I’m filing on your behalf. I’m filing a motion to dismiss your case based upon an illegal arrest, as well as a motion for disclosure of intelligence agency files – the graymail motion. I want the Court to make the intelligence agencies reveal any information they have on you or the Black Dragons.”

    “What’s the point of that?”

    “Like I told you, sometimes there are secrets they don’t want to reveal. Every once in a while they decide to drop a prosecution rather than have to reveal them.”

    “Dream on. You’d be better off spending your time studying the football teams.”

    “I seem to be doing pretty well so far. You’re the one who needs to study.”

    

    “All rise!
Veuillez vous lever!
”

    The hearing on Kevin’s motions gave him his first opportunity to see Judges Orozco and Linares. Alone at the defense counsel table, Kevin rose as the three judges entered Courtroom 1. On the opposite side of the courtroom, Charles Oswald and Bradford Stone stood confidently.

    “Good morning, counsel,” Judge Orozco said pleasantly. Her English was marked with a Spanish accent. “Mr. Anderson, do you wish to be heard on the motion to dismiss based upon the circumstances of your client’s arrest?”

    Kevin rose. “Yes, Your Honor.”

    Before he could speak, Judge Linares of the Philippines interrupted. “Counsel, I think we can save ourselves a lot of time here. Even if the arrest was illegal, you are not entitled to have the case dismissed. There is no precedent in support of the remedy of dismissal of the charges against the accused.”

    Kevin was about to offer a polite response when Judge Davidson broke in. “In any case, you don’t have any proof that the arrest was illegal, counselor. These police reports you submitted are a bunch of hearsay. The prosecutor has submitted documents which categorically deny any U.N. involvement in your client’s arrest.”

    “If you grant me a hearing, I will bring in the witnesses with firsthand information.”

    “We’re not going to waste our time, counsel,” Judge Davidson growled. “Your motion is denied. Court is adjourned.”

    The other judges looked surprised as Judge Davidson abruptly got up and began exiting the courtroom. Then Kevin realized that there had been no discussion about his graymail motion.

    “Your Honors,” he shouted, “there is one more motion to be heard today.”

    Judge Orozco had risen from her chair, and Judge Davidson was already on his way to the door.

    “What motion is that, counsel?” Judge Orozco asked.

    “My motion to require the prosecution to provide intelligence agency information.” He did not want to refer to it as a “graymail” motion in open court.

    Judge Orozco gave Kevin a puzzled look. She sat down and said, “I don’t believe I’ve seen that motion.”

    “We don’t know what counsel is talking about,” Bradford Stone piped up.

    Judge Davidson was still standing. “There are no other motions pending, counsel.”

    Kevin dug frantically through his papers. “Here it is, Your Honors. It was filed the same day as the motion challenging the arrest of Mr. Zaric.”

    Kevin offered the paper to the usher to be shown to the Court. “We have no record of any such motion being filed,” the Deputy Registrar told the judges.

    “We never received anything,” Bradford Stone volunteered.

    “What are you trying to do, counsel?” Judge Davidson asked gruffly.

    “I have the stamped copy showing it was received by the Registrar, Your Honor. I filed it myself.”

    Judge Davidson was still standing. “There’s nothing before the Court, counsel. Court is adjourned.”

    The judge turned to leave.

    “May I file it again, Your Honors, since it has apparently been misplaced?”

    Judge Davidson glared at Kevin; he had lost his patience.

    “No,” Judge Davidson shouted. “The time for filing motions has expired. Court is adjourned.” He strode briskly off the bench, with the other judges following closely.

    

    

    Four days later, Kevin was sitting at the dining room table having dinner with Diane and Ellen when suddenly there was a thunderous knock at the front door.

    Ellen raced to the door. Before Kevin and Diane were even out of their seats, she had thrown open the door.

    Two black figures yelled out in Dutch and threw something into the house.

    “They came!” Ellen shrieked. “They came!”

    Kevin saw confetti and small round brown cookies strewn along their hallway. A brown burlap sack had been left by the door.

    Ellen picked up a cookie and popped it into her mouth. “Yum,
pepernoten
!”

    It was December 5
^th
, the day the Dutch celebrated the arrival of
Sinterklaas
, their version of Santa Claus. Instead of elves, his helpers were “Black Piets,” descendants of the ancient Moors who were said to have met up with
Sinterklaas
in Spain and helped him distribute gifts to children who had been good. In reality, the “Piets” were neighbors, who had been given gifts by several parents to be delivered to their children.

    Ellen scooped up some confetti and threw it in the air. “This is great!” she exclaimed. “I wasn’t sure if Sinterklaas even came to American houses.”

    Kevin reached down, picked up one of the
pepernoten
, and took a bite. It tasted like a spicy graham cracker. “Hey, these are good.”

    Ellen spied the burlap sack by the door that had been left by the helpers. She looked inside and pulled out a large box. “Look, it has my name on it!” She tore at the wrapping paper, and then opened the box. “Ice skates!” She pulled out a pair of white leather ice skates. “The canals just have to freeze over this winter!”

    The next morning, Kevin received a present of a different kind: a stack of witness interview reports from Nihudian. The reports were grim, and presented an unchanging pattern of brutality. The Black Dragons who first invaded a town acted with military professionalism and did not harass the civilians. They were men who were thought to be from Serbia and were unknown to the witnesses. Then, once in the camps, other men wearing Dragon uniforms – local Bosnian Serbs – appeared, and they routinely subjected the prisoners to beatings, rape and execution. The prisoners often knew these men. Kevin began to make a list of their names as he read the reports.