ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 31st May 2007

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 31.05.2007

Time: 13:30

Registry and Chambers:

Refik Hodžić, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:

SCHEDULE:

In terms of the schedule, there is a status conference in the Šešelj case next Tuesday, 5 June, at 9:00 in courtroom I. This will be followed in the afternoon with the first sitting of the Limaj et al. appeals hearing. This is scheduled to sit until Wednesday.



Other than this, the four on-going trials will continue to sit this and next week, with the Boškoski and Tarčulovski trial set to continue next Wednesday afternoon.

Office of the Prosecutor:



Olga Kavran, Spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor, made the following statement:



As previously announced, next week ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will conduct an official working visit to Belgrade, Serbia. During her visit, the Prosecutor will meet with President Boris Tadić, Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, numerous other government officials as well as representatives of the various services involved in the operational aspect of cooperation with the Tribunal.



The Prosecutor is ready to work with the new government on their efforts to achieve full cooperation with the ICTY, which includes the arrest and transfer to the Tribunal of Ratko Mladić, Radovan Karadžić and the remaining fugitives. She welcomes the declared readiness of the newly elected government to do everything in its power to fulfil its international obligations so that Serbia can move forward and hopes that her visit to Belgrade will be fruitful and will demonstrate that this declared commitment is confirmed by concrete action and results.

Questions:



Asked if anything could be done by the Tribunal regarding the escape of Radovan Stankoviæ, Hodžić said that the case had been transferred and as such was under the jurisdiction of BiH authorities. He added that the case was conducted before the BiH State Court and the court proceedings were seen to be of satisfactory standards. However, his escape was of grave concern to the Tribunal.



Kavran responded that the Prosecutor had stated that she was concerned with the escape of Radovan Stanković and urges the relevant authorities at all levels to take every necessary action to re-arrest him and return him to prison, and also to find out what exactly happened and to hold all those involved responsible for their actions and to prevent similar situations from happening again in the future.



Asked if this would have any influence on the 11bis cases pending before the Tribunal, Hodžić said that that something like this could not pass without being noticed and could be taken into account by the judges who were to make the decisions on the pending cases.



A journalist asked if there were any comments on the publication by Croatian media of names contained in an alleged confidential annex filed by OTP in the Gotovina et al. case and if there was a draft amended indictment. Kavran answered that there was a draft amended indictment that was submitted to the Trial Chamber a few weeks ago. The speculation in the Croatian media did not correspond to the draft amended indictment. The document that they referred to was not in the public domain and if such a document existed, it would exist as a confidential document and therefore, could not be commented on.



Kavran further added that there was no new indictment and there would not be a new indictment. In accordance with the Completion Strategy, the last indictments were issued and investigations completed by the end of 2004.



Hodžić said that if there was a confidential document that was leaked in the media, this would be a breach of the document's confidentiality, and it could cause consequences for those responsible.



A journalist asked theoretically speaking, if there was a possibility of a confidential annex to the public indictment. Kavran stated that it was not helpful to speak theoretically. She said that the following was relevant: Gotovina, Čermak and Markać were the only three individuals who would be on trial at the Tribunal in relation to that specific case. Anything beyond that right now was a speculation. Regardless of whether or not there was a confidential document, there was a very specific issue: Three people would be on trial at the Tribunal in relation to these crimes.



Hodžić said that if a document was filed confidentially and was leaked through the media, it could constitute contempt of court. There was a very strange interpretation in the media that it would be a fair game to publish a document filed confidentially before the Trial Chamber ruled to lift its confidentiality. Publishing a document filed confidentially constituted a breach of Tribunal’s rules and there were no two ways about it, said Hodžić.



Asked if the Tribunal intended to start contempt procedures, Hodžić said that he could not speculate.



Asked if there was any reaction to EU Commissioner Ollie Rehn’s comments on the progress of Serbia going in a positive direction, Kavran said that she would not comment on his opinion but that the Prosecutor would be going to Belgrade next week and would make her assessment based on that visit.

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