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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: 19.02.2003
Time: 12:10
REGISTRY AND
CHAMBERS
Christian
Chartier, Head of the Public Information Services, made the following announcement:
Good afternoon to you all.
For a change, I would like to give the floor immediately to the Office of the
Prosecutor, namely Jean-Jacques Joris for an important announcement.
Jean-Jacques Joris, the
advisor to the Prosecutor, made the following statement:
“The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirms
that Fatmir Limaj was arrested at 5.42 p.m. (local time) on Tuesday 18 February
by the Slovenian authorities in Kransjka Gora. Fatmir Limaj was brought at 7.10
p.m. before a Judge of the Higher Court in Kranj, prior to being detained in
Radovlijca.
Following the arrest of
the accused, the ICTY is making arrangements for the speedy transfer of Fatmir
Limaj to the Detention Unit of the Tribunal.
The Office of the Prosecutor
wishes to commend and to thank the Slovenian authorities for their remarkably
swift and efficient cooperation”.
Now turning to other matters.
The Prosecutor was in Belgrade, Podgoridca and is now in Skopje and I believe
that you all have read what she said at a press stake out in Belgrade and Podgoridca.
In Belgrade, she reminded in clear terms that cooperation was and remains insufficient.
There has basically not been any progress since her last address to the Security
Council regarding arrest and transfer of indictees, regarding the difficulties
we still experience in access to sources of evidence in general and particularly
archives documents and the difficult legislation of the waivers for the witnesses
in the Milosevic Trial. So, nothing new regarding Serbia and Montenegro. As
for Montenegro, the Prosecutor highlighted that she had received some valuable
important documents but of course Montenegro did not hold much in comparison
to Belgrade. Regarding the arrest of fugitives it is the assessment of the Prosecutor
that Montenegro could do more since some of our indictees are reported on and
off to be in Montenegro.
REGISTRY AND CHAMBERS
Christian Chartier then
retook the floor and delivered the following statement:
Following the conference
that took place in Sarajevo in the middle of January between the OHR and the
ICTY, on the prosecution of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the next round
of talks will take place tomorrow and Friday, at the Tribunal. An OHR delegation,
led by Ambassador Fassier, Senior Deputy High Representative, will meet with
ICTY representatives from the Presidency, the OTP and the Registry. Their discussion
will focus on the estimation of costs attached to the establishment and functioning
of a Specialized Chamber within the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
With regard to developments
related to on-proceedings:
The Initial Appearance
of the three accused who were transferred yesterday afternoon has been scheduled
and will take place on Thursday 20 February (tomorrow) at 2.15 p.m in Courtroom
I, before Judge Liu.
Also tomorrow, a hearing
will be held at 3 p.m. to hear arguments with regards to the Motion for Provisional
Release filed on 27 January by Dusko Knezevic. On 14 February the Trial Chamber
ordered the attendance of the Liaison Officer of Republika Srpska, M. Trivun
Jovicic.
A Status Conference has
been rescheduled in the case The Prosecutor vs. Tihomir Blaskic. Judge Fausto
Pocar, Pre-Appeal Judge, scheduled this conference for Friday 28 February at
4.30 p.m.
Finally, with regard to recent decisions issued by the Chambers, the following
are brought to your attention:
Earlier this week, the
Appeals Chamber (Judge Hunt, Presiding; Judge Güney, Judge Gunawardana,
Judge Pocar and Judge Meron) dismissed the appeal of Vidoje Blagojevic against
the renewed dismissal of his request for provisional release on 19 November
2002 by Trial Chamber II. The Appeals Chamber held that the Trial Chamber
had again failed to take the Republ ika Srpska’s guarantee into account, and
then determined for itself that, notwithstanding the validity of that guarantee,
it was not satisfied that Blagojevic would appear for trial if provisionally
released.
On 14 February, Trial
Chamber I Section A (Judge Liu, Presiding; Judge Clark and Judge Diarra) issued
an order to the parties in the case The Prosecutor vs. Naletilic and Martinovic
to file “detailed sentencing submissions” by the end of this week. The Chamber
considered that neither the parties’ final written submissions as well as
their closing arguments failed to meet the requirements of Rule 86 (C) and
101 (B), setting forth their obligation to address matters of sentencing and
factors to be taken into consideration by the Chamber.
On 13 February, Trial
Chamber III (Judge May, Presiding; Judge Robinson and Judge Kwon) dismissed
the Motion by Dragoljub Ojdanic challenging the jurisdiction of the Tribunal
on persons who are alleged to be members of a joint criminal enterprise. The
Trial Chamber based its Decision on the Appeals Chamber’s jurisprudence.
In order to
save time for the Q & A session, other Decisions, Orders and legal filings
by the parties are listed on a separate page (please find attached).
Questions:
A correspondent remarked
on the problems the OTP had with waivers for witness in the Milosevic trial,
referring to the former Yugoslav President Lilic who mentioned this problem
himself in the Courtroom, asked whether Joris could tell the media who the other
potential witnesses in the Trial were?
Joris replied that he could
not and added that he had omitted to mention one point regarding the general
themes of non-cooperation. He stated that Minister Mihailovic last week publicly
said that Serbia and Montenegro would not accept any new Indictments and would
not transfer any citizens to The Hague.
Asked whether
the Tribunal could confirm that Seselj would come to the Tribunal on 24 February
as he had reported himself in the media, both Joris and Chartier said that they
could not confirm this but that Seselj was welcome since he had been indicted
last Friday. His arrival at the Detention Unit should already have taken place
and could take place any time.
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