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Please
note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing.
It is merely a summary.
ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 28.04.2004
Time: 12:00
REGISTRY AND CHAMBERS
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following
statement
Good afternoon,
Senior officials from the OSCE Mission to Croatia are visiting
the Tribunal today. The will have meetings with President Meron,
the Registrar, Hans Holthuis, and, I understand, the Prosecutor.
Discussions are expected to focus on the OSCE Mission’s monitoring
of war crimes proceedings conducted in Croatia.
The Tribunal has also been hosting a visit over
the last few days from a delegation from the Office of the High
Representative who has come to discuss primarily the legal framework
for the Special War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The delegation has met with a range of experts from within the Tribunal.
In terms of the court schedule:
In on 23 April, Trial Chamber I ordered the Krajisnik
trial be adjourned until 24 May 2004. We will keep you updated on
any decisions taken by the Trial Chamber in this case regarding
scheduling when we receive them.
In The Prosecutor v. Stanisic and Simatovic,
there will be two hearings on 10 May 2004 commencing at 10 a.m.
to discuss motions for provisional release that have been filed
confidentially by both accused. This will be followed by a status
conference.
There will be a status conference in The Prosecutor
v. Ivica Rajic before the Pre-Appeal Judge, Judge Liu, at 2.30
p.m. tomorrow in Courtroom I.
There will be a status conference in The Prosecutor
v. Kordic and Cerkez before the Pre-Appeal Judge, Judge Schomburg,
at 2.15 p.m. on 6 May in Courtroom I. The Appeals hearing is due
to take place from 17 to 21 May 2004, and possibly also on 13 and
14 May, pending the outcome of the status conference.
There will be a status conference in The Prosecutor
v. Rahim Ademi at 2.30 p.m. on 7 May in Courtroom I. The accused
is not required to be present.
There will be a status conference in The Prosecutor
v. Dragan Nikolic before the Pre-Appeal Judge, Judge Guney,
at 2.30 p.m. on Friday 14 May.
A reminder that as this Friday is Queen’s Day,
there will be no court proceedings.
Finally, I am very pleased to be able to confirm that the Association
of Defence Counsel (ADC) will be holding a press briefing following
this.
Office of the Prosecution:
Jean-Daniel Ruch for the Office of the Prosecutor
made no statement.
Questions:
Asked whether the Prosecutor, as announced earlier,
had asked the President for clarification regarding the amendment
to Rule 28 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Ruch replied
that the Prosecutor had indeed asked for a clarification and that
she had received yesterday a personal letter from the President.
Ruch said that the view of the Prosecutor and the view of the President
were different. Her view was much closer to the view of the Judges
of the ICTR, who had not amended Rule 28. The Prosecutor’s feeling
was that at the end of the day this would be an issue which had
to be solved at the level of the Security Council. There was no
other mechanism or procedure to deal with this matter, he added.
Asked if this meant that the Prosecutor would ask
the Security Council to deal with this matter, Ruch replied that
the Prosecutor, together with the President, was due to appear before
the Security Council in the middle of June to report on the developments
regarding the completion strategy. This was certainly one element
that she would want to address, he said. This was one element regarding
the interpretation of resolution 1534 which was dealing with the
completion strategy, he added.
Asked by a journalist whether you could say that
the Prosecutor had received a clarification but did not share the
view of the President, Ruch replied that it would be fair to say
that.
Asked if the clarification letter which the Prosecutor
had received from the President would be made available to the public,
Ruch replied that he did not think so, adding that, as it was a
personal letter, it would not be appropriate to make it public.
Asked what the Prosecutor would like to achieve
by addressing the Security Council regarding Rule 28, Ruch said
that the way the Prosecutor was dealing with this issue had basically
to do with a basic principle of international criminal justice bearing
on the independence of the Prosecutor.
Asked whether the Prosecutor felt that Rule 28
had consequences for the independence of the Prosecutor, Ruch replied
that he thought she did. He added that even though this might not
have practical and direct implications for current investigations
or for future indictments by this Tribunal, it might have more general
implications for the future of international criminal justice and
he repeated that it was on those principles that she was looking
at this matter.
A journalist asked if new indictments regarding
Kosovo were expected soon. Ruch replied that the Prosecution had
been saying for a long time that it was continuing its investigations
into crimes committed in Kosovo and was confident of finishing all
its investigations by the end of this year, as had been requested
by the Security Council.
Asked if the process of confirming indictments
by the Bureau would be public, Landale replied that indictments
would only be made public once they were confirmed. The process
before that was not public.
Asked if from now on all public indictments had
to be confirmed by the Bureau, Ruch replied that it had always been
the case. All public indictments had been confirmed by the Judges
and simply now you had a new step in the confirmation procedure.
See
also the latest ADC-ICTY press briefing.
Press Briefing documents:
The Prosecutor v. Vidoje Blagojevic and Dragan
Jokic
* 23 April 2004 – "Decision on Request
for Certification of Interlocutory Appeal of the Trial Chamber’s
Judgement on Motions for Acquittal Pursuant to Rule 98bis."
The Prosecutor v. Sefer Halilovic
* 23 April 2004 – "Prosecution Response
to Defence Appeal Concerning Issuance of Subpoenas."
The Prosecutor v. Enver Hadzihasanovic and
Amir Kubura
* 20 April 2004 – "Final Decision on Judicial
Notice of Adjudicated Facts".
* 22 April 2004 – "Submission on ‘Statement
of General (ret) Klaus Reinhardt on the Cases of Enver Hadziahasanovic
and Amir Kubura’."
The Prosecutor v. Radoslav Brdjanin
* 23 April 2004 – (Concerning allegations against
Milka Maglov) "Decision on Request to Trial Chamber Under Rule
73 to Certify Permission to Appeal Decision on Motion for Acquittal
Under Rule 98bis Dated 19 March 2004."
* 26 April 2004 – "Registrar’s Submission
on Redaction Pursuant to Rule 33."
The Prosecutor v. Pavle Strugar
* 22 April 2004 – "The Republic of Croatia
Information Pursuant to Rule 54bis."
The Prosecutor v. Ivica Rajic
* 27 April 2004 – "Decision on the Defence
Motion on the Form of the Amended Indictment."
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