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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: 11.06.2003
Time: 12:20
REGISTRY AND
CHAMBERS
Jim Landale,
Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following opening statement:
Good afternoon,
The President of the ICTY, Judge Theodor Meron, will arrive
in Sarajevo today for a two-day working visit. During the visit President Meron
will attend a meeting of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board as
an observer. The meeting is being held to discuss enhancing the capacity to
prosecute war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, he will meet with
representatives of Office of the High Representative (OHR), the Bosnian Minister
of Justice, Slobodan Kovac, the President of the Bosnian State Court, Martin
Raguz, as well as representatives of the Office of the Bosnian Prosecutor.
Second, you will by now
all be aware that Jovica Stanisic was transferred into the custody of the Tribunal
here in The Hague earlier this morning. We will of course let you know a date
and time for his initial appearance once it has been scheduled.
The Tribunal's Outreach
Programme was happy to host this morning a group of 10 MP's from the Vojvojdina
Assembly. The group received a short briefing about the ICTY and attended a
session in the Milosevic trial.
Among the court documents
we have received since the last briefing, the following are brought to your
attention:
From the Appeals Chamber:
On 5 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Dragan Nikolic, the Appeals Chamber (Judge Meron, presiding, Judges Pocar,
Shahabuddeen, Guney and El Mahdi) issued its "Decision on Interlocutory
Appeal Concerning Legality of Arrest", in which it dismissed the Appeal.
It is an important Decision and I urge you to read it carefully.
From the Trial Chambers:
On 5 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Slobodan Milosevic, we received the Trial Chamber’s "Decision
on Confidential With an Ex Parte Annexure Prosecution’s Motion for Protective
Measures for Witness C-17",
On 6 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Momcilo Krajisnik, we received the "Decision on Defence Motion
for Order and Direction", in which Trial Chamber I (Judge Orie, presiding,
Judges El Mahdi and Canivell) rejected the Motion.
In terms of other court
documents:
On 10 June, again in The
Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, we received the "Prosecution’s
Corrigendum of the Expert Report of Renaud De La Brosse".
On 6 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Slobodan Milosevic, we received the "Prosecution’s Corrigendum
of the Expert Report of Dr. Budimir Babovic".
On 5 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic and Dragoljub Ojdanic, we received
"General Ojdanic’s Application for Leave to Appeal: Decision on Second
Applications for Provisional Release".
On 10 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Pasko Ljubicic, we received the "Prosecutor’s Pre-Trial Brief".
On 4 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Tihomir Blaskic, we received a "Scheduling Order " from Judge
Pocar, the Pre-Appeal Judge, ordering that a status conference be held on Tuesday
24 June at 4.30 p.m and instructing "the Prosecutor to inform the Chamber
during the status conference about the filing of evidence in rebuttal, if any,
with respect to the Appellant’s Fourth Motion to Admit Additional Evidence on
Appeal Pursuant to Rule 115 of the Rules".
On 5 June, in The Prosecutor
v. Vojislav Seselj, we received the "Submission no. 16"
from the Accused addressed to Judge Schomburg, presiding Judge of Trial Chamber
II.
Copies of all the documents
I have mentioned are available to you on request.
No one from the Office of
the Prosecutor (OTP) was available to attend the Press Briefing.
Questions:
Asked whether there was
any decision by the Trial Chamber regarding the archives from Serbia and Montenegro
(Milosevic case: Prosecution’s application for an order directing Serbia and
Montenegro to comply with outstanding requests for assistance) Landale replied
that he had not received a decision yet but that he expected one relatively
soon.
Asked if Serbia and Montenegro
would have the right to appeal after the decision was made, Landale said that
he believed they had.
A journalist
asked about the testimony of witness C-17 (protected witness in the Milosevic
trial) since parts of the testimony had been redacted while in other instances
the same had been said in court in open session with no objection made by the
Judges and the OTP. He continued to say that the media would need some guidance
in this matter. Landale replied that the order for the protection of witness
C-17 was laid out in black and white and that it was clear what the order said.
He added, in order to be absolutely clear and most of the journalists had been
informed about this already, that any information identifying where this witness
came from had been redacted and could not be reported.
He continued to say
that he did understand that some difficulties could arise in situations like
this in trying to find out exactly what could and could not be reported. Landale
advised the journalists to try to seek guidance which would make that process
easier. He suggested that if any journalist had any doubt they should contact
the Press Office and it would endeavor to find out and would let the journalist
know. It was self-evident from the fact that C-17 was a protected witness, that
the media would have to take precautions and be sensitive when reporting about
the witness.
Redacted question.
In answer to a question
as to if Biljana Plavsic was still in The Hague and to which country she would
be transferred to serve her sentence, Landale repeated that Tribunal policy
was that no announcement was made on where an individual would serve their sentence
until the transfer had taken place.
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