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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: 19.01.2005
Time: 12.15
Registry and Chambers:
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers,
made the following statement:
Good afternoon,
I am very pleased to note that
yesterday the Security Council passed resolution
1581, extending the terms of office of our ad
litem Judges until the completion of their cases,
and thus avoiding any possible future disruption
of ongoing trials. It is expected that the General
Assembly, as the organ that elects the Judges, will
give its final approval to this tomorrow.
In the resolution, the Security
Council also approved the Secretary-General’s request
to appoint two additional ad litem Judges
to the ICTY, Judge Gyorgy Szenasi of Hungary and
Judge Claude Hanoteau of France.
This will mean that the start of
the trial of Sefer Halilovic, due to commence this
coming Monday, will be put back by a day or two.
Instead on Monday there will be a pre-trial conference,
starting at 2.15 p.m. in Courtroom III. We will
of course let you know the time and date of the
start of the trial as soon as we are informed.
In terms of the court schedule:
As you should all be aware the
initial appearance for Savo Todovic will be held
this afternoon at 4.30 p.m. in Courtroom III before
Judge Agius. You are all welcome to attend that.
There will be status conferences
in The Prosecutor v.Ivica Rajic this afternoon
at 3 p.m. in Courtroom II; and in The Prosecutor
v. Stanisic and Simatovic tomorrow 20 December
at 3 p.m. also in Courtroom II.
Finally, a reminder that this Friday
is an official UN holiday.
Office of the Prosecutor:
Florence Hartmann for the Office
of the Prosecutor made no statement.
Questions
Regarding the issue of possible
new indictments, a journalist asked at what stage
of the review and confirmation process the Judges
were at. Landale replied that he could not comment
on where the process was at this point in time,
but that the requirements according to Rules 28
and 47would have to be met before any indictment
was confirmed. Landale said that the media would
be promptly informed if any new indictments were
made public.
Asked if there was a time-limit
on the process of reviewing and confirming an indictment,
Landale said that under both Rules 28 and 47 there
were none.
A question was asked regarding
a statement made by Gotovina’s lawyer in which he
said that the OTP was aware of the existence of
forged transcripts and was withholding this information
and whether the OTP could comment on this. Hartmann
replied that she could only comment in one way which
was that the story the journalist mentioned was
linked to a large campaign politicizing what is
and should stay a judicial matter. A case cannot
be discussed outside of the Courtroom, while the
accused is at large. The accused Gotovina should
present himself to the Tribunal where he could defend
himself and be in a position to challenge the evidence,
including the transcripts.
A journalist asked what the answer
of the Prosecutor would be when asked, in relation
to the discussions of European Union Membership
of Croatia, regarding the cooperation between Croatia
and the Tribunal. Had this issue been resolved and
was there full cooperation? Hartmann replied that
in order to have full cooperation all pending issues
with the Tribunal had to be met. In Croatia there
was one pending issue, the apprehension of Gotovina.
In other countries you had many more pending issues.
There can not be full cooperation until Gotovina
is not handed over to The Hague, she concluded.
In relation to the recently published
memoirs of Biljana Plavsic, a question was asked
about her alleged story that Radovan Karadzic was
in constant contact with the Tribunal and had even
forwarded documents to the Tribunal. Hartmann replied
that the she would be very happy if this was the
case, but that was not true and stated that the
journalist should ask Plavsic what she meant by
this absurd kind of allegation.
Press Briefing documents
The Prosecutor v Sefer Halilovic
14 January 2005 – Order on Defence
Motion for Variation of Court Order
14 January 2005 – Separate Opinion of Judge O-Gon-Kwon
Appended to Trial Chamber Decision Dated 12 January
2005 on Prosecution Request for Certification for
Interlocutory Appeal of ‘Decision on Prosecutor’s
Motion seeking leave to amend the Indictment’
14 January 2005 – Separate and Concurring Opinion
of Judge Ian Bonomy in the Decision on Prosecution
request for Certification for Interlocutory Appeal
of ‘Decision on Prosecutor’s Motion seeking leave
to amend the Indictment’
17 January 2005 – Order reassigning
a Case to a Trial Chamber
The Prosecutor v. Momir Nikolic
17 January 2005 – [Redacted] Appelant’s
Second Motion to Admit Additional Evidence
17 January 2005 – [Redacted and
Conformed] Appelant’s Reply Brief on Appeal
The Prosecutor v. Slobodan
Milosevic
28 December 2004 – Assigned Counsel’s Request to
the President pursuant to Article 19(F) of the Directive
on Assignment of Defence Counsel for a review of
the Deputy Registrar’s Decision Dated 14 December
2004 refusing assigned Counsel’s Application to
Withdraw with Attachment 1
6 January 2005 – Prosecution Motion
Regarding Exhibits and other Practicalities during
the Defence case
7 January 2005 – Prosecution Observations Regarding
Assigned Counsel’s "Request to the President pursuant
to Article 19(F) of the Directive on Assignment
of Defence Counsel for a Review of the Deputy Registrar’s
Decision Dated 14 December 2004 Refusing Assigned
Counsel’s Application to Withdraw with Attachment
1" Dated 28 December 2004
The Prosecutor v. Vojislav
Seselj
11 January 2005 - Decision on Requests
for Disqualification of the President of the International
Tribunal
14 January 2005 – Prosecution’s
Response to the Accused’s Submission number 67
17 January 2005 – Response to the
Accused’s Submission number 70
The Prosecutor v. Milutinovic
et al
22 December 2004 – Partly Confidential
– Prosecution’s response to General Ojdanic’s
Fourth Application
for Provisional Release with Annexes
A,B,C and Confidential Annex D
The Prosecutor v. Jovica
Stanisic and Franko Simatovic
18 January 2005 – Defence Pre-Trial
Brief
The Prosecutor v. Mejakic
et al
14 January 2005 – Serbia and Montenegro’s
Submission in the Proceedings under Rule 11bis
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