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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: 24.07.2002
Time: 12.00
REGISTRY AND
CHAMBERS
Jim
Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:
Good morning,
The President
of the Tribunal, Judge Claude Jorda, the Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, and the
Registrar, Hans Holthuis, have been in New York for the last couple of days.
Yesterday they were invited to appear before the Security Council to discuss
the report on the Judicial Status of the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
and the Prospects for Referring Certain Cases to National Courts.
With regard
to court documents:
On 22 July,
Trial Chamber II, Judge Wolfgang Schomburg presiding, rendered two decisions
rejecting the applications for provisional release filed by Dragan Obrenovic
and Vidoje Blagojevic on 11 June and 17 July respectively.
These are relatively
detailed decisions and contain some legal elements that will certainly be of
interest to you. Copies can be picked up at the end of the briefing.
By way of reminder,
we currently have 10 accused on provisional release and there are seven requests
pending.
In the Prosecutor
v. Milan Simic, we received on 22 July a "Motion for Provisional Release
of Milan Simic". This makes reference to the plea agreement between the
Office of the Proscutor and Simic, by which Simic entered a guilty plea to
two counts of torture and all other charges against him were dismissed. The
agreement was covered by a confidentiality order until Monday, when the order
was lifted.
In the Prosecutor
v. Slobodan Milosevic, I can confirm that the status conference for the preparation
of the Bosnia and Croatia parts of the trial will take place tomorrow morning,
beginning at 9 a.m.
On 12 July
we received the "Prosecution's Response to Observations of the Amici
Curiae on Expert Reports of Philip Coo".
On 17 July,
we received the "Observations by the Amici Curiae on the Prosecution's
Request to Adduce the Evidence of Mr. George Georgiou, Mr. Andreas Iacovou
and Mr. Yiannakis Tsiartis Pursuant to Rule 92 bis Without Cross-Examination
by the Accused".
And, on 19 July
we received three documents relating to Zoran Lilic's scheduled testimony, which
he requested to have filed publicly. These documents are entitled:
- "Authorisation"
- "Objection to the Trial Chamber, Witness Mr. Zoran Lilic", and
- "A letter from Mr. Zoran Djindjic to Mr. Zoran Lilic".
Again, those documents
will be available after this briefing.
In the Prosecutor
v. Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic, on 17 July Trial Chamber III, Judge
Richard May presiding, issued an "Order for Submission of Guarantees",
ordering the defence for Krajisnik to obtain and file guarantees from the
Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia in one of the working languages of the Tribunal no later than
Wednesday 31 July 2002. This follows Krajisnik's "Renewed Motion for
Provisional Release", which was filed on 5 June 2002.
In addition
in this case, we received on 19 July a Prosecution expert report prepared
by Dr. Colin Kaiser pursuant to Rule 94 bis entitled "Report on the Damaging
and Destruction of Islamic and Roman Catholic Sacral Buildings in the Municipalities
of Bosanski Novi, Donji Vakuf, Kljuc, Kotor Varos, Prijedor and Sanski Most
in 1992 (April to December) and Preliminary Remarks on Damaging and Destruction
of Islamic and Roman Catholic Sacral Buildings in the Municipalities of Bijeljina,
Brcko, Bratunac, Cajnice, Doboj, Foca, Ilijas, Rogatica, Visegrad and Zvornik".
Copies available on request.
In the Prosecutor
v. Milan Martic and with regard to his request for provisional release, on
23 July we received a "Guarantee of the Federal Government of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia and the Government of the Republic of Serbia"
and the "Prosecution's Addendum to Response to Motion for Provisional
Release".
In the Prosecutor
v. Miroslav Kvocka, Milojica Kos, Mladjo Radic, Zoran Zigic and Dragoljub
Prcac, we received on 23 July a "Motion for Separation of Appelant Zigic's
Appeal Procedure".
And, on the
same day, a letter from Zigic revoking his power of attorney for his defence
counsel Miodrag Deretic.
With regard
to the courtroom schedule:
As you know, the
last day of the Milosevic trial before the summer recess will be this Friday.
The trial will resume on Monday 26 August. The Stakic trial will continue next
week until Thursday 1 August. The Martinovic and Naletilic, Galic and Simic
trials will run throughout next week.
In addition, there
will be status conference in the Halilovic case on Monday 29 July at 4 p.m.
in Courtroom I. The presence of the accused is not required. And, there will
be a status conference in the Krnojelac case on Wednesday 31 July at 4.30 p.m.
in Courtroom I before Judge Meron. The accused is required to be present.
On behalf of the
Outreach Programme, I can tell you that 12 defence attorneys from Kosovo began
a five-day working visit to the International Tribunal on Monday. The working
visit is funded by the American Bar Association - Central and East European
Law Initiative (ABA CEELI) and co-organised by the ICTY Outreach Programme.
The 12 attorneys will have an opportunity to observe court proceedings before
the Tribunal, as well as to hear presentations by Tribunal officials on the
applicable law and procedure at the ICTY. This is the second visit of legal
professionals from Kosovo to The Hague Tribunal supported by the Outreach Programme.
The first visit was organised last October in cooperation with the Council for
Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms
(CDHRF).
Finally, just
to let you know that next week's briefing on 31 July will be the last before
the summer recess. Press briefings will resume on Wednesday 28 August.
Graham Blewitt, Deputy Prosecutor, made the following statement:
This morning the
Office of the Prosecutor sought the assistance of the Government of the Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular the assistance of the Ministry of Defence,
to carry out a search of the 2nd corps archives at the 2nd corps headquarters
and barracks in Tuzla. Full consent was given for this search to be carried
out and the cooperation has been given by the 2nd corps commander and his staff.
The Prosecutor is very grateful for the full cooperation that has been given
by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in particular the second core
commander and his staff. In addition, the Prosecutor is also grateful to the
assistance given to the OTP staff by SFOR in this particular endeavor.
Questions:
Asked if Lilic
was risking contempt in the Milosevic trial if he did not testify, as was
the case with witness K12, Blewiitt replied that he would not comment on proceedings
before the ICTY for reasons of sub judice. As Lilic had received assurances
from the government Blewitt said he remained confident that a solution would
be found to the situation and also confident that Mr. Lilic would give the
evidence.
Asked if the
premises had already been searched and cleaned of documents and if this was
the case what else new did they expect to find, Blewitt replied that this
was the first occasion that the 2nd corps headquarters had been searched and
he anticipated that documents relevant to inquires and investigations would
be found. There had been no suggestion that documents had been destroyed,
after the search was completed the relevant documents seized would be bought
back to The Hague and assessed, he added.
Asked about
the report in the Financial Times as to the possible appointment of Carla
Del Ponte as the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC and how that would affect her
position at the ICTY, Blewitt replied that he had not seen the report, however
if this happened then clearly she could not be the Prosecutor of the ICTY
and the ICTR. If she was appointed to the ICC then that would mean that the
two Tribunals would require the appointment of a new Prosecutor, which would
be a matter for the Security Council. The appointment of a Prosecutor to the
ICC would be a matter for the States Parties that were signatories to the
ICC treaty, that had ratified the treaty, he added.
Asked what
other headquarters where searched for documents, Blewitt replied that there
had been several searches conducted at military headquarters. Asked what they
were looking for, Blewitt replied they were looking for documents that would
help with ongoing investigations.
Asked if the
Prosecution was going to ask for the possibility of the third extra week in
the Kosovo section of the Milosevic trial and if so would this provide the
Prosecution with enough time to present all the evidence in their case, Blewitt
replied that the Prosecution shared the Trial Chamber's desire to finish all
trials in an efficient and timely manner. The time constraints placed on the
Prosecution did cause problems but the Prosecution was doing everything they
could to ensure that the OTP could comply with the deadlines in a way that
was compatible with the Prosecutor's obligation to establish the case. The
OTP would certainly take advantage of any additional time granted to the Prosecution
by the Trial Chamber but overall the OTP was satisfied that they could complete
the Kosovo aspect of the Trial within the time limits set. It might well be
that the OTP would take advantage of the third week but that would be a matter
for Mr. Nice and the trial team, he added.
Asked about
the report that Richard Prosper would be coming to The Hague for meetings
with ICTY officials, both Landale and Blewitt replied that they had no knowledge
of the visit.
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