ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 18th Oct 2006

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 18.10.2006

Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

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

SCHEDULE:

The proceedings in all cases currently sitting, Prlić et al, Milutinović et al, Milan Martić, Mrksić et al. and Popović et al will continue this and next week.

I would also like to remind you that next Tuesday, 24 October is a UN holiday and the Tribunal will be closed.

Filings:

Appeals Chamber issued a decision yesterday rejecting the appeal of Dragomir Milošević against the decision denying his motion for provisional release.

In the case of Naser Orić, defence and prosecution filed their appeal briefs on 16 October.

And in the case of Vojislav Šešelj, the defense filed a request to the Trial Chamber to permit less time in court during the initial two months of the trial in order for the defence to have further time to prepare. The request suggests that Chamber sits two days a week in November and three days a week in December.

OUTREACH:

The four-day conference "Domestic War Crimes Trials: Taking a Lead", organized by The Humanitarian Law Center, the US Department of Justice and Department of State, starts today in Montenegro. The conference will consist of case studies and panel discussions on topics related to war crimes prosecutions and trials and will gather the highest-level judicial officials dealing with war crimes cases from all of the former Yugoslavia. The Tribunal will be represented by Deputy Prosecutor David Tolbert and the Registry Liaison Officer in Serbia, Alexandra Milenov. She will speak Thursday about the legacy of the ICTY archives. The Tribunal remains committed to participating in events such as these in order to support judiciaries in the region in their efforts to bring justice to war crimes victims.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Anton Nikiforov, Advisor to the Prosecutor and acting Spokesperson of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), made the following statement:

The Minister of Interior of the Republika Srpska, Mr. Stanislav Čadjo, with his colleagues from the ministry dealing with administrative issues, is visiting OTP today. He is having meetings with the Prosecutor and chief of Investigations.

Yesterday the OTP was visited by the new commander of NATO forces in Bosnia and Hercegovina, General Wightman. He met with the Prosecutor.

Questions:

A journalist asked for confirmation that it was Šešelj’s newly appointed lawyer, Hooper, who filed the request for shorter sitting times in November and December. Hodžić confirmed that this was indeed so.

In response to a question on to the status of Šešelj’s submission to the Bureau and President to dismiss Judge Moloto from the pre-Trial Chamber, Hodžić answered that the decision on the submission is pending.

Answering a question on when the composition of the Šešelj Trial Chamber would be made known, Hodžić said it would have to be some time soon as the trial was scheduled to begin on 2 November.

Nikiforov was asked about the purpose of the Prosecutor’s meeting with Minister of Interior of the Republika Srpska. He answered that because of the recent elections a new government needed to be formed and that the Minister intended to stay in his position, as offered by the Prime Minister. The meeting was to provide an update on all the issues that the Ministry and the OTP work together on. He added that there was unfortunately nothing new to add about possible results in terms of locating the remaining fugitives, and that the Prosecutor again expressed her dissatisfaction with this. The OTP still believed that at least two fugitives, Karadžć and Žulpjanin, could be in the Republika Srpska and so it was their responsibility to locate them and transfer them to The Hague.

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