ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 28th Jun 2006

Please note that this
is not a verbatim transcript of the Press
Briefing. It is merely a summary.

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 28.06.2006

Time: 12:00 p.m.

Registry and Chambers:

Christian Chartier, Senior Information Officer, made the following statement:

Tomorrow morning, the Judges of the Tribunal will hold a regular Plenary Session at which they will discuss the Annual Report for the period August 2005/July 2006. Once adopted, this Report will be sent to New York and will be formally presented by President Pocar in early October. While the Judges hold their Plenary, there will be no proceedings.

On Friday, Trial Chamber II, presided over by Judge Carmel Agius, will deliver its Judgement in the Orić case. The Judgement hearing will take place at 2:15pm in courtroom 1. The Chamber has thus met the deadline it had fixed itself when closing the trial on 10 April. The trial had commenced on 6 October 2004. The Prosecution completed its case-in-chief on 1 June 2005 and the Defence case-in-chief commenced on 4 July 2005.

Another Judgement will be rendered next Monday, at 9am, in courtroom II, which is the oral Rule 98bis Judgement in the trial of Milan Martic. Following this, the Defence will make its opening statement on Friday 7 July and will commence presenting its evidence on Monday 10 July.

10 July is also the date set for the commencement of the trial in the Milutinovic et al. case, on the Kosovo indictment from which Vladimir Djordjevic, who is in the run, has been severed.

Milorad Trbic has also been severed from his co-accused on the indictment in the Popovic et al. case, the Srebrenica case. This trial will thus open on Friday 14 July with seven accused in court, representing the biggest "multiple accused trial" ever held at the ICTY. In view of this trial, a new ad litem Judge, Judge Kimberley Prost (from Canada), will be sworn in next Monday during a ceremony at 4:30pm in courtroom I.

Also noteworthy for next Monday, 3 July, is the trial of Josip Jovic on charges of contempt of court. Trial Chamber III will open the proceedings at 8.30am in courtroom III, and will sit until 7pm if necessary.

TURNING TO ON-GOING PROCEEDINGS:

The Vukovar trial, the Krajisnik trial and the Prlic et al. trial continue at times and venues indicated on the Tribunal’s website.

In terms of Status Conferences, there will be one in the Brdjanin case, later today (5pm in courtroom I), and two tomorrow afternoon; in the Galic case (3:30pm in courtroom II) and in the Delic case (5:00pm in courtroom I). Next Tuesday there will be a status conference in the Seselj case at 5:00pm in courtroom I.

WITH REGARD TO CHAMBERS’ FILINGS:

I would like to draw your attention to an important Decision issued two days ago by the Appeals Chamber which denied the Motion for reconsideration filed by Zoran Zigic.

One of the co-accused in the Omarska/Keraterm and Trnopolje camps case, Zoran Zigic was sentenced on 2 November 2001 for crimes against humanity. On 28 February 2005, the Appeals Chamber affirmed his conviction for crimes against humanity and war crimes and upheld the sentence of 25 years' imprisonment.

Zoran Zigic filed in December last year a Motion seeking a retrial or, in the alternative, an acquittal on all the convictions but one.

Departing from its exiting jurisprudence, the Appeals Chamber found that "there is no power to reconsider a final judgement," that "victims of the crimes and convicted persons are both entitled to certainty and finality of legal judgments," and that "the existing appeal and review proceedings provide sufficient guarantees to persons convicted that they have been tried fairly and in accordance with the norms of due process."

As a result of this Decision, the Zigic case is closed and, as you may remember, Zoran Zigic was recently transferred to Austria to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Anton Nikiforov, Advisor to the Prosecutor and acting Spokesperson of the Office of the Prosecutor, made no statement.

Questions:

A journalist asked whether this year the Association of Defence Council (ADC) would be allowed to contribute to the Annual Report to be presented to the Security Council by President Pocar on October. He added that last year the ADC had complained that they were not allowed to contribute to the Annual Report in the same way that the OTP did. Chartier replied that he would find out whether the complaint had been heard and what the outcome was.

Nikiforov was asked to comment on the reports coming from the Bosnian and Serbian press on the whereabouts and health of ICTY fugitive Ratko Mladic. Nikiforov responded that the OTP had no information to corroborate the reports that Mladic had suffered a third stroke or that he was in hospital. He added that there was no new information about his whereabouts and that the OTP had been assured that the Serbian authorities were still trying to locate Mladic. There were no indications that he was outside Serbia and if the authorities wanted they could find him, arrest him and transfer him to The Hague.

Asked which of the two new ad litem Judges would sit on the Milutinovic trial and which one would serve as reserve, Chartier replied that both would sit on the bench with Judge Bonomy presiding. He added that he was not aware that there was a reserve Judge on this case, pointing out that all the ad litem Judges were now sitting on cases. He further pointed out that it was not mandatory to have a reserve Judge on any case.

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