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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 March 2001
Time: 11:30 a.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Jim
Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:
The
President of the Tribunal, Judge Claude Jorda is currently actively working
with the Presiding judges of the Trial Chambers, based on the results of the
elections, to ensure that no interruption occurs in trial activity between now
and November, when the newly-elected permanent judges officially take up their
posts. This means focussing on the preparation for the arrival of the ad
litem judges, which could mean the reassignment of judges to other Trial
Chambers, and that all the cases that are meant to take place, do in fact take
place.
As
of the 16 March, four nominations have been received for the election of the
judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and that is
sufficient for the election to proceed. The election is likely to take place
by the end of April, which is good news for both Tribunals, because as soon
as the judges are elected for the ICTR, the process whereby two judges from
the ICTR can be selected for the Appeals Chambers of both tribunals can take
place. That could mean that the additional two Appeals Chamber judges are here
in The Hague by August.
As
I’m sure you are aware, that will mean that there will be 16 judges in The Hague,
comprising nine judges in the Trial Chambers and seven for the Appeals Chambers
of the two Tribunals. Of course appeals will be heard for both the ICTY and
the ICTR by a bench of five judges.
As
you should have seen by our advisory yesterday, Milomir Stakic’s case has been
assigned to Trial Chamber I. His initial appearance will take place later today
at 1600 hours in Courtroom III.
On
16 March, Trial Chamber III scheduled a status conference in the Krajisnik and
Plavsic case for 4 April 2001 at 1630 hours, at which both the accused and their
counsel are to be present. I understand that this will be the first time that
both Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic appear in court together.
In
the Bosanski Samac case, on 27 March 2001, Trial Chamber III granted an application
from Miroslav Tadic to provisionally leave his residence for medical examinations.
In the application on 13 March, Tadic requested permission to leave his residence
in order to undergo an additional medical check-up at the Clinical Hospital
Centre in Banja Luka in the Republika Srpska. Tadic was granted provisional
release by the Trial Chamber on 4 April 2000, subject to certain conditions,
including the requirement "to remain within the confines of the municipality
of Bosanski Samac".
In
the Naletilic and Martinovic case, a status conference has been scheduled for
2 April 2001 at 1600 hours to discuss trial matters such as depositions, cross
examinations and exhibits. Copies of that order will be available after this.
QUESTIONS:
Asked
what the procedure was for selecting ICTR judges for the common Appeals
Chamber, Landale replied that according to Security Council resolution 1329,
they would be assigned by the President of the ICTR.
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