ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 30th Aug 2006

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 30.08.2006

Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

Christian Chartier, Senior Information Officer opened as follows:

Good afternoon to all.

You all have followed this morning’s hearing at which Josip Jovic was found guilty of contempt and sentenced to the payment of a 20,000 euros fine. I would like to tell you that the summary of the Judgement has in the meantime become available in BCS as well as in French.

WITH REGARD TO THE COURT SCHEDULE:

The Krajisnik trial, which opened on 3 February 2004, is being brought to a close.

The Defence has started earlier today to present their closing arguments.

Yesterday, the Prosecution completed their submissions, with Senior Trial Attorney Alan Tieger concluding as follows: "Each count of the indictment individually, if found to be true, merits the highest possible sentence, regardless of the mode of liability. Therefore, based on the crimes committed by Mr. Krajisnik, the aggravated factors associated with them, the absence of substantial mitigating factors, it is our submission that Mr. Krajisnik should be sentenced to prison for life."

The Judgement in this case is expected on or before 29 September 2006 (as per The Chamber's "Finalized Procedure On Chamber Witnesses; Decisions And Orders On Several Evidentiary And Procedural Matters" dated 24 April 2006)

It will be another busy week in court over the coming days. The trials against Milutinovic et al., Prlic et al., Popovic et al., Mrksic et al. are all on-going. In addition there will be a couple of status conferences for cases on appeal: on Thursday morning in the Strugar case and another on Friday afternoon in the Hadzihasanovic and Kubura case at which only the accused Hadzihasanovic will be present.

Looking ahead to the end of next week, I would like to draw your attention to a status conference in the Gotovina, Cermak and Markac case on Thursday 7 September at which only the accused Gotovina will be present.

IN TERMS OF COURT FILINGS, the following should be singled out:

- Yesterday, Trial Chamber I issued a Decision granting the Defence for Vojislav Seselj leave to appeal against last week’s decision to assign a Defence Lawyer to the accused. This request for an appeal was lodged on 25 August by the Standby Counsel for V. Seselj. In its Decision of yesterday, the Trial Chamber says that the issue of assigning a lawyer to the accused is an issue "affecting the fair and expeditious conduct of the proceedings", that the "resolution of this question by the Appeals Chamber would reduce the risk of a potential retrial," since "counsel was assigned to the accused because the Trial Chamber is of the clear view that the Accused’s behaviour may substantially and persistently obstruct the proper and expeditious conduct of a fair trial."

- In the Seselj case again, the President of the Tribunal on 25 August rejected an appeal by the accused against a Decision by the Registrar not to grant a permit visit by a claimed friend of the accused, who "was likely to have strong contacts with the media." This Decision was "reasonably founded’" considered the President.

- And finally, the Appeals Chamber on 25 August, dismissed a third motion by Zoran Zigic for a review of the Judgement of 28 February 2005 in which his conviction for crimes against humanity and war crimes at the Omarska and Keraterm camps and his sentencing to 25 years' imprisonment, were affirmed. This request was the third made by Zigic, and the Appeals Chamber warns him that "any further attempt to seize the Appeals Chamber with similarly unfounded motions will result in the Appeals Chamber imposing strict sanction." Zoran Zigic thus continues serving his sentence in Austria, where he was transferred to on 8 June.

Please note that next week, I shall the pleasure of introducing to you Refik Hodzic, who has been appointed as the new Spokesman for Chambers and Registry. Refik will ensure the weekly briefing as of Wednesday 13 September.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Anton Nikiforov, Advisor to the Prosecutor and acting Spokesperson of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), made the following statement.

There are couple of issues I would like to make short clarifications about today.

First of all, in the recent publications in Bosnia and Herzegovina it appears that the stance of the Prosecutor in regard to the Report prepared by the Commission on Srebrenica of the Republika Srpska was misunderstood and misinterpreted. The Prosecutor, as is known, went to the Potocari Memorial on 11 July to join the victims for the commemoration of the 11 anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica. There she met the representatives of the victims (Association "Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa") and a number of officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina. When confronted with a question whether she (the Prosecutor) had blocked/ or placed a moratorium on publication of the said Report and the list of names of people who may have been involved in the tragic events in Srebrenica in July 1995, the Prosecutor clearly stated that she had never blocked or placed any moratorium on this Report. Moreover, she said that the Report (I repeat – Report) in her view should have been made public by the relevant authorities. Indeed, neither the Report, nor the mentioned list of names - are the documents of this Office or this Tribunal, and therefore we could not have possibly blocked or placed any moratorium on them in any event.

However, the Prosecutor never meant to say that any confidential parts of the Report (such as the list of names who may have been involved in the crimes and should have been investigated) should be published. On behalf of the Prosecutor I would like to make it absolutely clear – neither in this Tribunal, nor in any normal legal system the lists of suspects or people who may be suspects are publicized in the media with approval of the judicial institutions. The proper legal process requires investigation and confirmed indictment before the names of suspects are released to the public. In this case we are talking about a list of almost 900 people – publication of their names without due process would be a mistake from the point of view of the rule of law, would be similar to an attempt to repair one injustice by another. Though it might be understandable from the victims’ point of view, with whom the Prosecutor sympathizes completely and unquestionably, it has to be unacceptable to all those (including responsible politicians) whose task is to uphold the legal principles and rule of law and refrain from arbitrary accusations.

Second point. Due to the continuous allegations, revelations of new evidence, video tapes, accusations against the Office of the Prosecutor that some specific crimes have not been investigated and prosecuted, I would like to repeat that the investigative mandate of the OTP was finished in December 2004 and there will be no more investigations launched or indictments issued by the ICTY as a result of the Tribunal’s completion strategy. However, in terms of concurrent jurisdiction, which was always in place since inception of Tribunal, the national judicial and prosecutorial authorities are in charge now of all remaining war crimes cases, which were not addressed before by them or by the ICTY. The war crimes have no status of limitation and it is never too late to launch the proper legal proceedings before the national courts if the evidence and witnesses are available. The Office of the Prosecutor is ready to assist with the relevant and available evidence or expertise – all in the effort to establish the truth and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice.

Some of the allegations which emerged recently – appear to be of very serious nature. On one video an execution of at least one prisoner of war is clearly filmed, and whoever did this should be held responsible. The truth might be unpleasant, and sometimes surprising, and might not feet well always with political agendas of today. But it is crucially important for the future the countries in the region and normal relations between different communities that the allegations made are tested in the courts of law. Therefore, local responsible authorities shall encourage and support the independence of national courts and prosecutors, providing them with all conditions to do their job fairly and fully.

And thirdly, the Prosecutor was very surprised and disappointed with the public statements of Judge Schomburg, because it is within the exclusive competence of the Prosecutor to take all reasonable measures and steps in the search of and arrests of the fugitives.

There should be no misunderstanding – the Prosecutor of this Tribunal has the task to identify the main perpetrators of the most serious crimes, investigate the crimes committed, indict those most responsible and bring the accused before the Judges of the ICTY. In doing so the Prosecutor uses all available possibilities enshrined in the ICTY Statute to obtain full co-operation of the states concerned in the former Yugoslavia and of the United Nations’ member states.

The Prosecutor’s insistence, tenacity and daily efforts to obtain arrests or voluntary surrenders of the accused made a huge difference for this Tribunal and proved to be successful – bringing dozens of the accused, who were in hiding for years, to The Hague, so that the Judges can actually hear the cases.

The Prosecutor will continue to do her best to bring the remaining six fugitives before the Judges of this Tribunal, despite any opposing personal opinions. And finally, the Prosecutor, in fulfilling her responsibility to bring the accused to justice, will continue to rely on support of the International community, the European Union in the first place, which proved to be of absolutely crucial importance for the success of the Tribunal’s completion strategy. The Prosecutor is grateful for all support received from the EU and will remain available to them in making assessments of the level of co-operation with her Office of the states concerned whenever required.

Questions:

Asked with reference to Judge Schomburg’s comments whether the Judges of the Tribunal were no longer supporting the Prosecutor, Chartier replied that he was happy that Anton Nikiforov, on behalf of the Prosecutor, had pointed out that Judge Schomburg’s comments were his personal opinion. Speaking on behalf of the President of the Tribunal, Chartier added that Judge Schomburg’s comments indeed do not reflect the Tribunal’s position, and only express Judge Schomburg’s individual view. Judge Schomburg himself has stressed that what he reportedly said was his personal opinion and although he had been accurately quoted, he had also been quoted out of context. In addition, he never mentioned the name of the Prosecutor.

The same journalist then asked how come the Prosecutor reacted if her name was not mentioned, Nikiforov replied that from the reports they had seen the Prosecutor was clearly mentioned. The Prosecutor felt, that based on the reports, it was absolutely necessary to react because for the last years Mrs. Del Ponte and not only her but all three prosecutors relied on the full support and cooperation of States and the international community. He continued to say that he thought that without this support we would not have achieved the results of so many arrests we had seen in the last three to four years.

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Date: 30 August 2006