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Please
note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing. It is merely
a summary.
ICTY Weekly
Press Briefing
Date: 8 December 1999
Time: 11:30 p.m.
REGISTRY AND
CHAMBERS
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following announcements:
Firstly, in
the Celebici case, on 7 December, the Appeals Chamber, Judge Hunt presiding,
issued an order unanimously dismissing a motion filed by Esad Landzo for "permission
to obtain and adduce further evidence" through testimony and written
records from Judge Casesse, the Registrar and a Senior Legal Officer as to whether
the appellant waived his right to assert his fourth ground of appeal by reason
of a failure to raise the issue at trial.
Landzo’s fourth
ground of appeal states that his right to a fair and expeditious trial was "violated
when verdict and sentence were rendered by a Trial Chamber whose presiding Judge
was permitted to sleep through much of the proceedings".
Copies of that
order will be available after this, as will copies of two submissions from the
Prosecutor in the Kunarac and Kovac case filed on 6 December concerning statements
from two expert witnesses.
In the Tadic case
on 3 December, the Appeals Chamber, Judge Shahabuddeen presiding, issued an
order stating that, "the Outstanding Appeal against Sentence and the
Second Appeal against Sentence shall be joined and that in respect of the additional
matters raised by the Second Appeal against Sentence only:
the Appellant’s
brief shall be filed by Wednesday 15 December, 1999;
the Respondent’s
Brief shall be filed by Wednesday 22 December, 1999;
the Appellant’s
Brief in Reply shall be filed by Thursday 6 January, 2000; and
these
Briefs may be supplemented by oral argument before the Appeals Chamber which
shall take place on Friday 14 January, 2000 commencing at 11.00 am."
Finally, a scheduling
order was issued on 7 December by the Appeals Chamber, Judge Hunt presiding,
in the matter of Mr. Anto Nobilo’s appeal on the contempt of court ruling of
11 December 1998, in which Mr. Nobilo was found to be in contempt of the International
Tribunal.
The Appeals Chamber
ordered Nobilo to file, by Wednesday 5 January, 2000, "a clear statement
as to whether he seeks to rely on the content of the Declarations as evidence
in support of the Appeal". This concerns two Declarations from the
appellant and one from Nika Grospic, that were filed on 26 February 1999. The
Appeals Chamber noted that the Declarations, while signed, "are not
sworn or otherwise acknowledged as formal statements, which are to be used as
evidence in proceedings before the International Tribunal".
Lastly, the final
press briefing of this year will be on 22 December and the first one of 2000
will be on 12 January.
OFFICE OF THE
PROSECUTOR
Paul Risley, Spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) made the following
statement:
Firstly the
Prosecutor arrived in Rwanda on Saturday. She will continue her work from the
Kigali office this week. She is expected to return to The Hague by the end of
the week.
Secondly,
I have available for distribution a background paper on sexual violence, investigations
and prosecutions by the OTP. Copies can be picked up at the end of the briefing.
The attachment, a two-page chart noting the number of prosecutions, will follow.
QUESTIONS:
Asked
whether the OTP had received a letter from Minister Separovic, Risley replied
that a letter from Minister Separovic had been received by the OTP last Friday.
Consideration of an appropriate response would be made upon the Prosecutor’s
return to The Hague, he concluded.
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