ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 2nd May 2007

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 02.05.2007

Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

Refik Hodžić, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:



The ICTY has last week received further recognition in the form of an honorary doctorate awarded to the President of ICTY Fausto Pocar by the University of Antwerpen (Belgium). Professor Marta Pertegas in her laudation stated that President Pocar "worked diligently towards the creation of an international system of criminal law procedures that offers a dignified and forceful response in the struggle against international impunity." She added that the honour bestowed upon President Pocar "is a mark of public recognition of the vital and valiant role the Tribunal has played in recent years."

SCHEDULE:

On to the schedule:



The Appeals Chamber will render its judgment for former Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) officers Vidoje Blagojević and Dragan Jokić next Wednesday, 9 May at 11:00 a.m. in courtroom I.

As former commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the VRS, Vidoje Blagojević was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment by the Trial Chamber in January 2005. He was convicted for the complicity to commit genocide by aiding and abetting the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. In addition, he was convicted for aiding and abetting the persecutions of the Bosnian Muslim population of the Srebrenica enclave and in the area of Bratunac.

Dragan Jokić, former Chief of Engineering of the Zvornik Brigade of the VRS, was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for aiding and abetting the murders, extermination and persecutions of Bosnian Muslim men committed at Orahovac, Pilica/Branjevo Military Farm, and Kozluk. He was convicted of providing engineering resources and personnel to be used to dig mass graves for the executed victims.

Yesterday, the Prosecution completed its case-in-chief for the Milutinović et al. case. The Rule 98bis oral submissions also began yesterday and are expected to continue through Friday.

Today, the Prosecution is expected to close its case-in-chief for Dragomir Milosević. Rule 98bis oral submissions are scheduled to begin in the morning concluding with an oral decision by the Trial Chamber. The trial will reconvene on 24 May with a pre-defence conference including the opening statement for the defence.

The trials for the Popović et al. and Prlić et al. cases will continue this week and next in courtroom III. The trials for Haradinaj et al. and Boškoski and Tačulovski will recommence on Monday.

Office of the Prosecutor:

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

Questions:

A journalist made reference to an order filed in the case of the late Slobodan Milosevic, assigning judges to the Appeals Chamber to decide on the Prosecution’s request to lift the confidential statue of two documents. Asked if these documents were in relation to the Supreme Defence Council documents provided to the Tribunal by Serbia, Kavran stated that she could not discuss the content of the documents because of their confidential status but that she could confirm that the Prosecution submitted a request on 25 April to lift the confidentiality of the two particular documents named in the order. Kavran added that, as stated in the order, these documents arose from a request made by Serbia and Montenegro.

A journalist asked if the Šešelj case was ever considered to be referred to a state court in the region under Rule 11bis given the possibility, in his opinion that the trial may not begin before the Tribunal is set to close in accordance with the completion strategy. In response, Kavran said 'no' because under the current Rule 11bis, Šešelj’s case would not fit the required criteria. His case was considered to be of sufficiently high rank to be tried by the Tribunal so there had not been a consideration to transfer the case thus far, she stated.

Asked if there was a need to change the criteria and what would happen in that case, Kavran said that she could not speculate but that under the current criteria there would not be a motion to transfer under Rule 11bis. She added that she could not speculate what would happen if the criteria should change in the future. As far as she knew, all cases currently pending before the ICTY will be tried by the Tribunal and there had been no other indication.

Hodžić added that the Šešelj trial was one of the trials to be tried before the Tribunal. He assured that the judges would act in the interest of justice in the effort to secure a fair and expeditious trial. Hodžić said that this was a complex case and Šešelj was one of the senior figures and that the Tribunal was mandated to focus on the most senior indictees.

Asked if there was any indication that the completion strategy requirement that first instance trials to be completed by the end of 2008 would be extended by a few months, Hodžić said that there were no new Security Council resolutions with any new timeline. In his last address before the Security Council, President Pocar had indicated that the trials could run into 2009 and that the appeals would take two years from the completion of first instance trials. Hodžić said that the Tribunal was committed to meeting these deadlines while securing the rights of the accused to a fair and expeditious trial. Further, he stated he could not imagine a scenario where the international community, with the Security Council as its highest body, would jeopardize the investment in the international justice that was Tribunal’s by bringing into question the trials to be held.

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