Date: 19.01.2011
Time: 12:00
Registry and Chambers:
Nerma Jelačić, Spokesperson for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:
Good afternoon,
I will turn first to an important development regarding the admission of Mladić’s notebooks in the case of Vojislav Šešelj. On 12 January, the Registrar submitted a handwriting analysis report by independent handwriting expert Dr Dorijan Keržan. After comparing the handwriting in the notebooks with other materials written by General Mladić in the same period, whose source and date are certain, known and reliable, Dr Keržan concludes that they were written by the same person. The report will now be considered by the Trial Chamber before a decision is issued on the motion to admit sections of the notebooks as evidence.
In the case of Haradinaj and others, the Trial Chamber issued a decision last Friday on the shortened form of the fourth amended indictment. In the decision, the Trial Chamber ordered the Prosecution to file a revised version of this indictment, after considering Defence submissions that the indictment contains allegations which are outside the scope of the retrial as ordered by the Appeals Chamber. The revised version of the indictment is to be filed by this Friday.
Moving now to the Courtroom schedule, the trials of Radovan Karadžić and Mićo Stanišić and Stojan Župljanin continue this week and next as scheduled. The trial of Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović resumes next Tuesday 25 January in Courtroom II at 14:15.
I would like to conclude by giving you an update on the latest activities of the War Crimes Justice Project:
Last Monday, Judge Pocar and Judge Agius took part in a peer-to-peer meeting in Zagreb with around 20 judges from appellate courts from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, to share their experiences in adjudicating war crimes cases. Among the issues they discussed were the protection of witnesses and victims and the role of appellate judges in reviewing cases. Since the launch of the Project in September 2010, a similar peer-to-peer meeting took place in Sarajevo with judges from BiH and a regional meeting of judges was held in Belgrade. These exchanges of experiences will continue throughout the region in the coming months.
Office of the Prosecutor:
Frederick Swinnen, member of the Prosecutor’s Immediate Office, made no statement.
Questions:
A journalist asked if OTP has provided information on Aleksandar Cvetković who was arrested yesterday in Israel by request of the Bosnian authorities for allegedly participating in genocide in Bosnia. Swinnen said that he would look into the matter and get back to the journalist.