|
Please
note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing. It is merely
a summary.
ICTY
Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 20 September 2000
Time: 11:30 a.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers made the following statement:
Firstly,
I have just received a Decision rendered on 18 September 2000 by the Appeals
Chamber, consisting of Judges Nieto-Navia [Presiding], Vohrah, Wald, Pocar and
Liu, regarding the Admission into Evidence of seven affidavits and one Formal
Statement in the Kordic and Cerkez case.
In
terms of procedural background, Trial Chamber III rendered an oral decision
on 10 March 2000, in which the Judges admitted seven Prosecution affidavits
and one Formal Statement into evidence. The two co-accused subsequently appealed
this decision.
In
their decision, the Judges of the Appeal Chamber allowed the appeal, directed
"the Trial Chamber to exclude the seven affidavits from evidence"
and found "that the Formal Statement should not have been admitted into
evidence under Rule 94 ter" and accordingly directed Trial Chamber
III "to re-evaluate its admissibility under Rule 89(C), considering
if necessary any further submission by the Parties."
I
have copies of the Decision for you. A summary of this will be in the Weekly
Update next Friday and an analysis will be included in the next Judicial Supplement
to be released in the coming weeks.
The
three Judges of Trial Chamber I, Judge Rodrigues, Judge Wald and Judge Riad,
are currently in Zagreb and are continuing their meetings with legal professionals
and others in the Croatian capital. Their meetings so far with deans, academics
and students of the law faculty have been extremely useful. They have also had
the chance to view court proceedings at the Zagreb County Court and have met
with judges and other officials from that court. In addition, they have met
with senior representatives of the Croatian Bar Association, leading non-governmental
organisations involved in victim support, international officials and with Justice
Minister Ivanisevic. Further meetings are scheduled throughout today.
Tomorrow,
Thursday 21 September, a group of four judges from the newly established, multi-ethnic
Herzegovina-Neretva Cantonal Court in Mostar will be spending a day at the Tribunal
together with Deputy High Representative Judge Finn Lynghjem. During their visit
they will visit a couple of courtrooms, attend a court session, and meet with
some of the Tribunal’s Judges, along with senior representatives from the Registry
and the Office of the Prosecutor.
Paul
Risley, Spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) made the following
announcement:
The
Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor are in the office today. They will visit New
York and Washington DC next week. This marks the first trip by the Prosecutor
to Washington DC following trips over the past 12 months to Paris, London, Berlin
and elsewhere within Europe.
While
in Washington she will meet firstly with the US Secretary of State, Madeleine
Albright, who she already met in London six months ago. She also has meetings
scheduled with the Secretary of Defence William Cohen, National Security Advisor
Samuel Berger and other senior National Security, Defence and State Department
officials.
These
should be fairly routine meetings, but very important in terms of building and
establishing the cooperation given to the Tribunal by nations such as the United
States.
The
Prosecutor will then go to New York and is scheduled to make a brief report
to the Security Council and meet with other officials. This should also be a
fairly routine meeting for the most part.
QUESTIONS:
Asked
how long the Prosecutor would be staying in the United States, Risley replied
that the Prosecutor would be there for the whole week.
Asked whether,
during the meetings described as ‘routine meetings’ the Prosecutor would
convey a message concerning the arrests of Karadzic and other indictees,
Risley replied that she would. He added that in recent interviews, the Prosecutor
made it very clear that she had very direct messages to deliver. One of
the most important messages was the need for the arrest of those remaining
publicly indicted senior officials such as Radovan Karadzic. He concluded
that the election campaign to be resolved on Sunday would no doubt be a
topic of discussion during next week’s talks.
Asked
why the election campaign would be a topic of conversation during these
talks, Risley replied that it was because the elections concerned a person
who was indicted by the Tribunal. He added that the election would be resolved
by Sunday, the results of that election would probably be known by Monday
or Tuesday, and the subject would be likely to come up in discussions.
Asked
when the Judges’ report on compensation for victims would be made public,
Landale replied that a date for this was not yet known, however, he would
keep the press informed.
*****
|
