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Weekly Press Briefing - 23 February 2011

Date: 23.02.2011
Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

Nerma Jelačić, Spokesperson for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:

Good afternoon,

I would first like to remind you that the Judgement in the case of Vlastimir Đorđević will be rendered this afternoon at 14:15 in Courtroom I. Đorđević, a former senior Serbian police official, is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against Kosovo Albanian civilians in 1999. The trial began on 27 January 2009 and concluded with closing arguments which were held on 13 and 14 July 2010.

In the trial of Radovan Karadžić, the Trial Chamber on Friday suspended the contempt proceedings against Berko Zečević following his agreement at his initial appearance to testify as a Prosecution witness in the case. His testimony started yesterday afternoon and resumed this morning. He was charged with contempt, arrested and brought to the Detention Unit after failing to comply with the Chamber’s order to appear as a witness in the Karadžić trial. Zečević is an associate professor and the head of the defence technology department at the mechanical engineering faculty of the University of Sarajevo. His evidence relates to the nature of munitions supplied to and used by the Bosnian Serb army and the location from which the projective was fired that hit the Markale Market in Sarajevo on 5 February 1994. He has already testified as an expert and fact witness in a number of cases, including that of Slobodan Milošević.

The trial in the second contempt of court case of Vojislav Šešelj started yesterday morning. Šešelj is accused of having disclosed information on 11 protected witnesses, including their names, occupations and places of residence, in a book he authored. The hearing adjourned after the end of the Prosecution case and will resume at a date to be confirmed, pending the resolution of issues pertaining to the funding of the Accused’s defence.

Closing arguments in the trial of Prlić and others are ongoing. To date, the closing arguments of the Prosecution and those of Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak and Milivoj Petković have been heard. The Chamber will continue hearing the closing arguments of Valentin Corić this afternoon, which will be followed by those of Berislav Pušić. Each Defence team has 5 hours to present their arguments.

Hearings in the trial of Zdravko Tolimir continue this week and next as scheduled. The Chamber is currently hearing the testimony of prosecution witness Dean Manning, former OTP investigator of Srebrenica events. He is the 85th witness to be called so far by the Prosecution since the start of the trial on 26 February 2010.

I would like to conclude by providing you with a brief update on the War Crimes Justice Project:

Yesterday, the Tribunal conducted a training session with Montenegrin legal professionals from the Higher Court in Podgorica and Bijelo Polje and the Basic and Special Prosecutors Offices in Podgorica. Tomorrow, it will hold another similar training session for two days with prosecutors and legal advisers from various cantonal offices of the prosecutor in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The goal of these training sessions is to transfer the Tribunal’s institutional knowledge and specialised skills to jurisdictions in the region and to enhance their capacity to handle complex war crimes cases.

Similar training has taken place in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb since the launch of the WCJP in September 2010. Further training sessions are scheduled to be held in the region in the next months.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Aleksandar Kontić, member of the Prosecutor’s Immediate Office, made no statement.

Questions:

No questions were asked.

The Press Briefing can be viewed on the ICTY YouTube channel.