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ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 7th Apr 2006

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

  ICTY WEEKLY PRESS BRIEFING Latest
Developments

Please note that this
is not a verbatim transcript of the Press
Briefing. It is merely a summary.


Date:
06.04.2006

Time: 12:00


Registry
and Chambers:


Christian Chartier, Senior Information
Officer, made the following statement:


Good Afternoon.


As you may know, I will be giving the
weekly briefing until we secure a replacement
for Jim Landale. Alexandra Milenov is
now back doing her work as the Registry
liaison officer in the Tribunal's Belgrade
office.


During the extraordinary plenary session
held on Wednesday, 29 March, the Judges
amended Rule 15bis (Absence of a Judge)
and adopted a new Rule 15ter (Reserve
Judges). Entering into force today, the
new rules reflect Security Council Resolution
1660 passed on 28 February 2006. As a
reminder: Security Council resolution
1660 permits the Secretary-General to
appoint, at the request of the Tribunal
President, Reserve Judges from the Tribunal’s
pool of Ad litem Judges to specific trials.
Reserve Judges will be present at each
stage of a trial and may replace a judge
on a bench if he or she is unable to
continue sitting. This measure assists
the Tribunal in its efforts to complete
its work by avoiding situations in which
a specific trial would have to be restarted
if one of the judges on the bench is
unable to continue.


At the request of the Tribunal's
President, the UN Secretary General has
appointed two additional ad litem judges
- Judge Stefan Trechsel from Switzerland
and Judge Arpad Prandler from Hungary.
Both Judges have been assigned to the
Prlic et al. case, which will be presided
over by Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti.


Judges Trechsel and Prandler will
be sworn-in tomorrow in Courtroom I at
9 AM. To accommodate this, the trial
against Milan Martic, a high-level political
leader of the war-time Croatian Serb
entity, will sit from 10:30 to 15:30.
Next week this trial will continue in
Courtroom II at 9:00.


In terms of the courtroom schedule
for the days to come, the sentencing
hearing against Ivica Rajic, former Commander
in the Croatian Defence Council, will
take place this Friday at 15:00 in Courtroom
II.


The closing arguments against Bosnian
Army officer Naser Oric will continue
tomorrow at 14:15 in Courtroom III and,
if necessary, will continue next week.


The trial against Yugoslav Army officers
Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin
Slivancanin continues this Friday at
9:00 in courtroom III. Next week it will
sit in Courtroom I at 14:15 on Monday
and Tuesday and in courtroom III on Wednesday
and Thursday at 9:00.


The trial against Momcilo Krajisnik,
a former high-level leader of the Bosnian
Serb political entity, will continue
this week on Friday morning at 9:00 in
courtroom II. The trial will sit next
week Monday through Thursday at 9:00
in courtroom I.


A status conference against former high-level
Commander of the Croatian Army, Ante
Gotovina, will be held this Friday at
8:00 in Courtroom II.


There will be a status conference next
Tuesday in the case against former Minister
of Interior of the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Ljube Boskoski and former
ministry of Interior bodyguard, Johan
Tarculovski in Courtroom II at 14:15.


There will also be a status conference
in the case against a number of the highest-level
leaders of the Bosnian Croat wartime
entity, and one of the Republic of Croatia,
the Prlic et al. case, next Wednesday
at 9:00 in Courtroom III.


As a reminder, the Tribunal will be
closed next Friday, 14 April and the
following Monday, 17 April for Easter.


Office of the Prosecutor:


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


I would just like to make a couple
of comments on the meetings the Prosecutor
had last week. As you all know she met
European Union Commissioner for Enlargement
Olli Rehn and we just wanted to reiterate
our gratitude to all support we were
provided from the European Union in terms
of conditionality of the states of the
former Yugoslavia for cooperation with
the Office of the Prosecutor. This meeting
provided us with strong and clear support
in terms of cooperation provided by Belgrade
authorities and as a result of that we
also received clear assurances from Prime
Minister Kostunica in Belgrade
for the delivery of Ratko Mladic by
the end of April which is obviously very
important not only for the Office of
the Prosecutor but for the Tribunal in
general.


Prosecutor also met with the French
Justice Minister Pascal Clément
who visited the Tribunal and had a very
useful discussion with the Prosecutor
in regard to the law of the Tribunal,
legal proceedings in the ICTY and the
future of the ICTY. France provided full
support to the Tribunal through the visit
of Minister Clément and through
recent discussions in the United Nations
Security Council.


Finally in regard to the change
of the Office of the Prosecutor Spokesperson
I would like to say the following: The
Prosecutor has decided to reassign Florence
Hartmann to other special project within
the Office of the Prosecutor. We will
not go into further details regarding
this decision. The Prosecutor is grateful
to Florence for all her past valuable
and very special contribution to the
activities and efforts of the Office
of the Prosecutor.


Questions:


Asked
to comment on a statement made by Michael
Johnson, former Registrar of the BiH
State Court, in which he stated that
both Mladic and Karadzic could
be tried in by the BiH Court, Chartier
replied with the following:


The suggestion that high level alleged
perpetrators Mladic and Karadzic
could be tried in BiH Courts is highly
improbable.

The Statute of the Tribunal explicitly
provides that it has primacy over domestic
courts in cases of concurrent jurisdiction.
Moreover, in Resolution 1503 (2003)
the Security Council specifically mandated
the Tribunal concentrate on the prosecution
and trial of the most senior leaders
suspected of being most responsible
for crimes within the Tribunal’s
jurisdiction and, pursuant to Rule
11bis of the Rules of Procedure and
Evidence, only cases of low level or
intermediate responsibility may be
transferred to competent national jurisdictions.
The Tribunal has begun to transfer
lower level and intermediate accused
to the Special War Crimes Chamber ("WCC")
of the BiH court.

Apart form these legal considerations,
it is also unlikely that the WCC of
the BiH court would have the capacity
to hold the trials of these high level
individuals due to security concerns
in the region. The trial of such high
accused in the region could have a
destabilizing effect on a still fragile
security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Another noteworthy aspect is that
several member states to, such as the
United Kingdom, France and the USA
to name a few, have made various statements
in which they very clearly stated that
the Tribunal could and should not close
its doors without the arrest and the
transfer to Ratko Mladic and Radovan
Karadzic to the Hague in order to be
tried. The European Union also made
an announcement to the same effect,
in December 2005.


Asked to elaborate on the clear
assurance that Kostunica had given to
the Tribunal, Nikiforov replied that
the Tribunal could not give any further
information on this issue, except for
the fact that same assurances were given
not only to the Prosecutor but also to
Commissioner Olli Rehn. He added that
Belgrade had requested to work in quiet
in order to achieve results without any
media pressure.


Asked about the status of evidence
handed over to the Defence in the Milosevic
case,


Chartier replied that great caution
should be exercised by the holders of
the documents disclosed by the Office
of the Prosecutor to the Defence. He
stated that the mandate of the legal
advisers to the accused had been terminated
with the termination of the case but
that that did not mean that the documents
had become private documents. Some documents
have a public character and are publicly
accessible; but some others have been
filed confidentially, are confidential
and must remain so until a Trial Chamber
orders otherwise, if ever.


Finally a journalist asked to comment
on rumors that Dragomir Andan (director
of the RS police) was removed from his
position at the request of Carla Del
Ponte, Nikiforov answered that he could
not comment on this.


Documents:


Date

Case
Description

DocumentTitle

05-Apr-06

Blaskic
(Contempt)

MOTION
OF THE ACCUSED MARKICA REBIC FOR
SUSPENSION OF THE ORDER ON PAYMENT
OF FINES

31-Mar-06

Blaskic
(Review)

DECISION
BY THE REGISTRAR ACCEPTING MR SZE

05-Apr-06

Blaskic
,Kordic and Cerkez (Contempt)

RESPONSE
OF THE ACCUSED JOSIP JOVIC TO THE
PROSECUTOR'S JOINT PRE-TRIAL BRIEF
PURSUANT TO RULE 65 TER(E)

31-Mar-06

Boskoski
et al

CORRESPONDENCE
FROM SLO TC II RE. RULE 65TER MEETING

03-Apr-06

Boskoski
et al

DECISION
ON DEFENCE MOTIONS FOR EXTENSION
OF TIME

31-Mar-06

Boskoski
et al

PROSECUTION'S
NOTICE OF COMPLIANCE WITH PRE-TRIAL
JUDGE'S THIRD SCHEDULIGN ORDER
SETTING TIME FOR SUBMISSIONS DATED
15 DECEMBER 2005 AND SUBMISSION
OF FIRST AMENDED WITNESS LIST,
FIRST AMENDED EXHIBIT LIST AND
EXPERT REPORTS WITH ANNEXES A TO
G

03-Apr-06

Boskoski
et al

SCHEDULING
ORDER

31-Mar-06

Bralo
(Appeal)

MIROSLAV
BRALO REPLY TO THE PROSECUTION'S
RESPONSE TO HIS MOTION FOR ACCESS
TO CERTIFIED TRIAL RECORD

04-Apr-06

Cermak & Markac

DEFENDANT
ANTE GOTOVINA'S MOTION TO EXCEED
THE WORD LIMITATION IN HIS RESPONSE
IN OPPOSITION TO THE PROSECUTION'S
CONSOLIDATED MOTION TO AMEND THE
INDICTMENT AND FOR JOINDER

04-Apr-06

Cermak & Markac

DEFENDANT
ANTE GOTOVINA'S RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION
TO THE PROSECUTION'S CONSOLIDATED
MOTION TO AMEND THE INDICTMENT
AND FOR JOINDER

04-Apr-06

Gotovina

DEFENDANT
ANTE GOTOVINA'S MOTION TO EXCEED
THE WORD LIMITATION IN HIS RESPONSE
IN OPPOSITION TO THE PROSECUTION'S
CONSOLIDATED MOTION TO AMEND THE
INDICTMENT AND FOR JOINDER

04-Apr-06

Gotovina

DEFENDANT
ANTE GOTOVINA'S RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION
TO PROSECUTION'S MOTION FOR NON-DISCLOSURE
TO PUBLIC OF MATERIALS DISCLOSED
PURSUANT TO RULES 66 AND 68

31-Mar-06

Gotovina

SCHEDULING
ORDER FOR STATUS CONFERENCE

04-Apr-06

Gotovina

DEFENDANT
ANTE GOTOVINA'S RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION
TO THE PROSECUTION'S CONSOLIDATED
MOTION TO AMEND THE INDICTMENT
AND FOR JOINDER

04-Apr-06

Haradinaj
et al

DÉCISION
RELATIVE A LA DEMANDE DE LA DEFENSE
TENDANT AU REEXAMEN DES CONDITIONS
DE LA MISE EN LIBERTE PROVISOIRE
ACCORDEE A RAMUSH HARADINAJ LE
6 JUIN 2005

04-Apr-06

Haradinaj
et al

DÉCISION
RELATIVE À LA DEMANDE DE
MISE EN LIBERTÉ PROVISOIRE
DE RAMUSH HARADINAJ

04-Apr-06

Haradinaj
et al

CORRIGENDUM À LA
DÉCISION RELATIVE À LA
DEMANDE DE MISE EN LIBERTÉ PROVISOIRE
DE RAMUSH HARADINAJ

05-Apr-06

Kovacevic

NOTIFICATION
OF ADDITIONAL MEDICAL REPORT REQUIRING
URGENT ACTION BY THE TRIAL CHAMBER

05-Apr-06

Limaj
et al (Appeal)

DECISION
ON EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE RESPONSE

04-Apr-06

Limaj
et al (Appeal)

ORDONNANCE
PORTANT DESIGNATION DE JUGES DANS
UNE AFFAIRE DONT EST SAISIE LA
CHAMBRE D'APPEL ET NOMINATION D'UN
JUGE DE LA MISE EN ETAT EN APPEL

04-Apr-06

Lukic
et al

PROSECUTOR'S
NOTIFICATION TO THE REFERRAL NECH
AS TO REALIZATION OF CONDITIONS
FOR RESUMPTION OF RULE 11BIS PROCEEDINGS

03-Apr-06

Lukic
et al

SREDOJE
LUKIC'S DEFENCE MOTION FOR ACCESS
TO ALL CONFIDENTIAL & UNDER
SEAL MATERIAL IN THE MILOŠEVIC
CASE RELATING TO THE MUNICIPALITY
OF VIŠEGRAD

31-Mar-06

Milosevic

MOTION
OF GENERAL GVERO FOR ACCESS CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION IN THE MILOSEVIC CASE

03-Apr-06

Milosevic

VINKO
PANDUREVIC'S DEFENCE NOTIFICATION
ON JOINING THE "MOTION OF GENERAL
GVERO FOR ACCESS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
IN THE MILOSEVIC CASE"

03-Apr-06

Milosevic

SREDOJE
LUKIC'S DEFENCE MOTION FOR ACCESS
TO ALL CONFIDENTIAL & UNDER
SEAL MATERIAL IN THE MILOŠEVIC
CASE RELATING TO THE MUNICIPALITY
OF VIŠEGRAD

06-Apr-06

Milosevic

ORDER
ASSIGNING A TRIAL CHAMBER TO CONSIDER
GRANTING ACCESS TO CONFIDENTIAL
MATERIAL IN A CASE

31-Mar-06

Milutinovic
et al.

PROSECUTION
QUARTERLY REPORT ON THE SITUATION
OF WITNESS WITH CONFIDENTIAL AND
EXPARTE ANNEX A

05-Apr-06

Milutinovic
et al.

SECOND
AMENDED INDICTMENT

05-Apr-06

Milutinovic
et al.

PRETRIAL
ORDER AND APPENDED WORKPLAN

04-Apr-06

Mrksic

DECISION
ON PROSECUTION'S ADDITIONAL MOTION
FOR VARIATION OF PROTECTIVE MEASURES

04-Apr-06

Mrksic

PROSECUTION
MOTION TO AMEND ITS RULE 65 TER
WITNESS LIST

31-Mar-06

Oric

PROSECUTION'S
SUBMISSION OF PUBLIC REDACTED VERSION
OF 'THE PROSECUTION'S RESPONSE
TO THE DEFENCE CLOSING BRIEF'

31-Mar-06

Oric

PROSECUTION'S
SUBMISSION OF PUBLIC REDACTED VERSION
OF 'PROSECUTION'S FINAL TRIAL BRIEF'

03-Apr-06

Perisic

PROSECUTION'S
CONSOLIDATED RESPONSE TO "GENERAL
MILETIC'S MOTION FOR ACCESS TO
CONFIDENTIAL MATERIALS IN THE PERISIC
CASE" AND TO THE "JOINDER MOTIONS" OF
MILAN GVERO, LJUBOMIR BOROVCANIN,
DRAGO NIKOLIC AND VINKO PANDUREVIC

03-Apr-06

Popovic
et al

DECISION
(BY THE REGISTRAR ASSIGNING MR.
C. MEEK AS CO-COUNSEL FOR MR. BEARA

31-Mar-06

Popovic
et al

GVERO
DEFENCE NOTIFICATION ON JOINING
THE " REQUÊTE DU GENERAL
MILETIC AUX FINS DE TRADUCTION
DE CERTAINES REQUÊTES DU
PROCUREUR DANS LA LANGUE DE L'ACCUSE "

03-Apr-06

Popovic
et al

PROSECUTION'S
CONSOLIDATED RESPONSE TO "GENERAL
MILETIC'S MOTION FOR ACCESS TO
CONFIDENTIAL MATERIALS IN THE PERISIC
CASE" AND TO THE "JOINDER MOTIONS" OF
MILAN GVERO, LJUBOMIR BOROVCANIN,
DRAGO NIKOLIC AND VINKO PANDUREVIC

31-Mar-06

Popovic
et al

(STANISIC)
DEFENCE RESPONSE TO REQUESTS BY
GENERAL MILETIC AND OTHERS REGARDING
ACCESS TO CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL

04-Apr-06

Popovic
et al

GENERAL
MILETIC'S MOTION FOR TRANSLATION
OF THE PRE-TRIAL BRIEF IN THE LANGUAGE
OF THE ACCUSED

03-Apr-06

Popovic
et al

VINKO
PANDUREVIC'S DEFENCE NOTIFICATION
ON JOINING THE "MOTION OF GENERAL
GVERO FOR ACCESS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
IN THE MILOSEVIC CASE"

31-Mar-06

Popovic
et al

MOTION
OF GENERAL GVERO FOR ACCESS CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION IN THE MILOSEVIC CASE

31-Mar-06

Popovic
et al

BOROVCANIN
DEFENCE MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF
TIME AND FOR A LEAVE TO FILE A
CONSOLIDATED RESPONSE TO PROSECUTION'S
MOTIONS TO AMEND THE INDICTMENT

03-Apr-06

Prlic
and Others

ORDER
ASSIGNING JUDGES TO A CASE BEFORE
A TRIAL CHAMBER

05-Apr-06

Prlic
and Others

ORDONNANCE
PORTANT MODIFICATION DU CALENDRIER
D'UNE CONFERENCE DE MISE EN ÉTAT

05-Apr-06

Prlic
and Others

DECISION

04-Apr-06

Prlic
and Others

DECISION
ON THE ADMISSION OF RULE 92 BIS
WRITTEN STATEMENTS

31-Mar-06

Prlic
and Others

OBSERVATIONS
RELATIVES AU PROJET DE LIGNES DIRECTRICES
DESTINÉES À RÉGIR
L'ADMISSIBILITÉDES ÉLÉMENTS
DE PREUVE ET GARANTIR UN FONCTIONNEMENT
EFFICACE DE LA CONDUITE DU PROCÉS,
PRÉSENTÉES PAR SLOBODAN
PRALJAK

05-Apr-06

Prlic
and Others

MÉMOIRE
DE MILIVOJ PETKOVIC PRÉALABLE
AU PROCÈS EN APPLICATION
DE L'ARTICLE 65 TER F) DU RÈGLEMENT

31-Mar-06

Rasevic & Todovic

SAVO
TODOVIC'S DEFENCE MOTION FOR LEAVE
TO FILE A RESPONSE AND THE DEFENCE
RESPONSE TO "PROSECUTION'S SUBMISSION
OF SECOND JOINT AMENDED INDICTMENT
WITH ANNEX A AND CONFIDENTIAL ANNEX
B"

03-Apr-06

Stanisic

MOTION
TO WITHDRAW AS PRO BONO COUNSEL

31-Mar-06

Stanisic & Simatovic

DEFENCE
RESPONSE TO REQUESTS BY GENERAL
MILETIC AND OTHERS REGARDING ACCESS
TO CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL