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ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 3rd Feb 1999

ICTY Press Briefing - 3 February 1999

Please
note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing. It is merely
a summary.


ICTY Weekly
Press Briefing

Date: 3 February 1999

Time: 11:30 a.m.


REGISTRY AND
CHAMBERS

Jim Landale, the ICTY Spokesman, began today’s briefing by making the following
announcements:


Firstly, the hearing
in the Aleksovski case will now be held in Courtroom II instead of Courtroom
I and after the briefing a television will be set up here in order for you to
follow the proceedings.


Unfortunately,
there will be no one from the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the briefing
this morning as they are meeting a delegation from the Republika Srpska (RS)
who are on a working visit to the Tribunal. The visit was organised at their
request and the delegation is led by the RS Minister of Justice, Mr. Milan Trbojevic.
They have visited the Detention Unit and will be meeting with the President
and Registrar.


You all should
have received our press release yesterday on the replacement of Judge Riad in
the Blaskic trial. The proceedings will resume with Judge Rodrigues in his place.
The press release is available to those who have not yet got a copy.


In the Radic &
Others case, on 29 January 1999, Trial Chamber III rejected a motion for the
provisional release of Milojica Kos, stating that Kos "has failed to
establish that exceptional circumstances exist to justify release".
The
initial request for his provisional release was filed on 19 October 1998.


Finally, in the
Celebici case, on 28 January, Esad Landzo requested that the Appeals Chamber
extend the time limit to file his appellate brief until 1 May 1999. Mucic and
Delic have filed similar time extention motions as well.


 


QUESTIONS:


Asked how the
Tribunal views visits such as the present one by the delegation from the Republika
Srpska since there have been no arrests, Landale answered that they had requested
this visit themselves, which, in itself, was a positive sign. He added that
the Prosecutor had said on numerous occasions that much more could be done
by the authorities in the Republika Srpska to arrest and transfer to the custody
of the Tribunal those individuals publicly indicted and who were living in
the Repubika Srpska.

Asked for names
of the people in the RS delegation, Landale gave the following names:

Mr. Milan Trbojevic, RS Minister of Justice, Mr. M. Arsovic, Judge of BH Constitutional
Court, Mr. B. Gudalo, Judge of District Court in Banja Luka, Mr. J. Jankovic,
Investigating Judge of Banja Luka Basic Court and Ms. B. Milosevic, RS Liaison
Officer.

Asked how long
the delegation would be visiting, Landale replied that they were here for
three days.

*****