ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 7th Nov 2007

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 07.11.2007

Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

Liam McDowall, Senior Policy Advisor to the Registry, made the following announcement:

With commencement today of the Seselj trial the ICTY has currently eight different cases being handled at trial stage, this represents an unprecedented level of trial activity at the Tribunal.

SCHEDULE:

Today, the Prosecution will continue its opening statement in the Seselj case and the accused will be given an opportunity to make a statement tomorrow at 9:00 in courtroom I. The Prosecution will then begin its evidence-in-chief on 11 December 2007. Also this week, a status conference will be held Friday for Milan Martic at 9:00 in courtroom I.

Next week, the remainder of the on-going cases will continue with the exception of the Popovic et al case, which will continue on Monday, 19 November.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Olga Kavran, Spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor, made no statement.

Questions:

A journalist asked why all the previous posted transcripts in the Seselj case have been removed from the webpage. McDowall responded that the current operation practice of Tribunal is that pre-trial transcripts are not posted on the website before the Chambers is in possession of the names of all witnesses. This was a protective measure adopted by the Registry. He continued to say that he envisaged that once all witness lists were released that pre-trial transcripts will be posted in the Seselj case. He said this practice currently applied to all cases.

The journalist then asked why previously the Tribunal had posted pre-trial transcripts on the site and have been removed. McDowall answered that he was not aware of this and would look into that.

Asked whether it had been reported correctly from Brussels that the Prosecutor agreed that the European Union has initialled a pre-membership agreement with Serbia Kavran responded that the Prosecutor had provided her assessment to Mr. Rehn following her latest visit to Belgrade at the end of October. The Prosecutor believes that genuine political will exists to arrest and transfer the remaining fugitives. Both President Tadic and Prime Minister Koštunica had made it clear that they believed that this would be in Serbia's best interest. She also had fruitful meetings with members of Serbia's Action Plan team and she believed there was now a workable arrangement for access to archives of the Security and Information Agency (BIA). Moreover, a number of requested documents had been provided since then and the Prosecutor's office had been given unimpeded access to the archives of military courts. The Prosecutor believed that all these developments were promising and hoped that they will lead to the arrest of Ratko Mladic and the remaining fugitives very soon.

Another journalist asked if Belgrade did not also agree to some form of participation to work more closely with the Office of the Prosecutor, Kavran replied that right now the Office of the Prosecutor through officials was much more closely associated with efforts on the ground in terms of trying to locate and arrest these fugitives. Asked if she could elaborate, Kavran said that she hopes she will be able to once the fugitives were in our custody.

Asked whether there was any evidence suggesting that Seselj or members of his party were threatening the witnesses not to testify, Kavran responded that this was a matter that would be raised with the Trial Chamber not something she could comment on. The journalist added that since the Prosecutor had requested to keep the identity of the witnesses confidential until the 11 December 2007 the Presiding Judge did not seem to be convinced to grant this request. Kavran replied that as you could understand there were many concerns when it comes to these types of issues and she would have to check what if anything could be discussed in the public domain at this moment because of confidentiality concerns.

A question was asked in BCS and translated by Olga Kavran: the journalist stated that a Croatian newspaper published today that the OTP was investigating journalists and asked whether the OTP will also investigate allegations made by a Belgrade journalist that a bomb was planted in his window six months ago because he was to testify in the Seselj case; Kavran answered that the OTP did not discuss any investigations of any nature but added that the Office of the Prosecutor takes all allegations of threats to witnesses or potential witnesses very seriously.

A journalist recently attended an NGO meeting in Amsterdam during which it was reported that three witnesses, who were supposed to appear in the Seselj case, had been killed. Asked if the Prosecution was aware of this information, Kavran said that she was not aware of any such reports.

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