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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: 30 May 2001
Time: 11:30 a.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Jim
Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:
On 30 May 2001, the Appeals Chamber consisting of Judges Hunt, presiding, May,
Robinson, Pocar and Fassi Fihri, rendered its Judgement on Appeal by Anto
Nobilo Against Finding of Contempt.
The
Appeals Chamber allowed the appeal by Mr. Nobilo and directed the Registrar
to repay to him the sum of NLG 4,000 paid as the fine imposed by the Trial Chamber.
You
will recall that Nobilo was one of the defence counsel for General Blaskic and
that on 11 December 1998, Trial Chamber I found that Mr. Nobilo had disclosed
information relating to proceedings in the trial of Zlatko Aleksovski before
the Trial Chamber in "knowing violation" of an order which it had
made prohibiting the disclosure of the information. The Trial Chamber therefore
considered that Mr. Nobilo had acted in contempt of the Tribunal and imposed
on him a fine of NLG 10,000, of which payment of NLG 6,000 was suspended
for a period of one year on condition that Mr. Nobilo was not found again
in contempt of the Tribunal during that period (see Press Release No.
375 of 15 December 1998).
On
18 December 1998, Mr. Nobilo filed a confidential Application for leave
to appeal the Decision of the Trial Chamber, which a Bench of the Appeals Chamber
(Judges May SPresidingC, Wang and Hunt) granted on 22 December 1998.
Copies
of the Judgement and a detailed press release on the Judgement will be available
to you after this briefing.
On
29 May 2001, Judge Patrick Lipton Robinson, issued warrants of arrest and orders
for the surrender of Radovan Stankovic and Dragan Zelenovic to the authorities
of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).
This
follows a motion from the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) on 28 May 2001, which
noted that the original warrants of arrest for Stankovic and Zelenovic had been
transmitted in June 1996 to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic
of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Republika Srpska, but not to the FRY where
the OTP now believes the accused likely to be. The OTP therefore requested that
the warrants for arrest and orders for surrender be sent to the authorities
in the FRY.
Both
Stankovic and Zelenovic have been charged in an amended indictment dated 7 October
1999 with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war
for their part in the detention, torture and sexual assault, including rape,
of Bosnian Muslim women and girls after Serb forces overran the town of Foca
in south-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.
Again,
we have a detailed press release for you on that.
On
25 May 2001, the Appeals Chamber consisting of Judges Jorda, presiding, Vohrah,
Shahabuddeen, Nieto-Navia and Pocar, issued its Decision dismissing Momcilo
Krajisnik’s Defence Interlocutory Appeal to the Trial Chamber’s Decision
on Motion Challenging Jurisdiction, filed by Momcilo Krajisnik on 9 October
2000.
Krajisnik
had challenged the Trial Chamber’s Decision on Motion Challenging Jurisdiction
– With Reasons, issued on 22 September 2000, on the basis that the Trial
Chamber erred in its findings in respect of his
1.
General challenge to the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal ("the
first Ground of Appeal");
2. Specific
challenge to jurisdiction in relation to Article 7(3) of the Statute ("the
Second Ground of Appeal");
3. Specific
challenge to jurisdiction in relation to Articles 2 and 3 of the Statute ("the
Third Ground of Appeal"); and
4. Specific
challenge to jurisdiction in relation to acts alleged in the Indictment to
have been committed prior to the commencement of the armed conflict in Bosnia
and Herzegovina ("the Fourth Ground of Appeal").
All
four grounds of appeal were dismissed by the Appeals Chamber.
On
25 May 2001, the Appeals Chamber consisting of Judges Vohrah, presiding, Shahabuddeen,
Nieto-Navia, Pocar and Liu dismissed Zoran Zigic’s Interlocutory Appeal Against
Trial Chamber I Decision on the Defence Motion Regarding Concurrent Procedures
Before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the
International Court of Justice on the Same Questions issued on 5 December 2000.
The Appeals Chamber emphasized that there is "no hierarchical relationship
between the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal".
However, the Appeals Chamber pointed out that the Tribunal "would consider
any decisions of the ICJ, subject to its competence to make its own findings".
In
the Kvocka and others trial we received, on 29 May 2001, a scheduling order
deciding that the Schedule in the case will be as follows:
-18
to 20 June 2001: Defence Rejoinder
-29 June
2001: filing of Closing Briefs
-16 to 20
July 2001: presentation of closing arguments.
In
the Celebici case, on 25 May 2001 in a decision on motion for clarification
and joint motion for extension of time, the Trial Chamber varied the scheduling
order as follows:
-the
parties shall file their briefs on sentencing by 22 June;
-the parties
shall respond to such briefs by 13 July;
-the oral
hearing shall be held on 27 July.
In
terms of the schedule you should note that next Monday, 4 June, is a UN holiday,
so there will be no court sessions. In addition, there will be further hearings
in the Krstic case on 5 and 6 June.
Finally,
the status of cases fact sheet is now available in French as well as English
and will be posted on the Tribunal’s website.
PROSECUTION
Jean-Jacques
Joris, Advisor to the Prosecutor, made no statement.
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