| Please note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing. It is merely a summary. ICTY Weekly Press Briefing REGISTRY AND CHAMBERS Good afternoon, First, I am very pleased to be able to confirm the Secretary-General’s appointment of Lord Bonomy to the ICTY to replace Judge May, who is resigning for health reasons. Lord Bonomy, who is a Judge of the Scottish Court of Session, will officially take up his duties on 1 June, 2004 I would also like to remind you that the Appeals Judgement in The Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstic will be rendered next Monday, 19 April, at 11 a.m. in Courtroom I. You are all invited to attend. The closing arguments in The Prosecutor v. Radoslav Brdjanin will be held from Monday 19 April to Friday 23 April in Courtroom III. Finally, I’m sad to announce that this will be Joanne’s last briefing here at the Tribunal before she leaves us. I’m sure you will join me in thanking her for all her hard work and patience over the years, and in wishing her all the very best for the future. Questions: Asked whether a new Judge had been assigned to the Milosevic trial, Landale confirmed that upon effective entry into service, Lord Bonomy would be assigned by President Meron to Trial Chamber III. Asked to confirm that the new Judge would officially take up office on 1 June 2004, Landale replied that this was correct. Asked if he would have access to trial materials before 1 June in order to prepare, Landale replied that he understood that he would. Asked, now that Lord Bonomy had been confirmed as the new Judge, when he was expected to arrive in The Hague, Landale replied that he was already here. Asked to confirm that, between now and June 1, Lord Bonomy would read through the trial papers, Landale said he believed this would be the case. He added that according to the Rules, Lord Bonomy would have to certify that he had familiarized himself with the record of the proceedings, before he could join the bench of judges, according to Rule 15 bis. Asked what function Lord Bonomy would hold and whether his assignment to Trial Chamber III meant that the Trial Chamber had to again decide who would be the presiding Judge, Landale replied that it was a matter for the Trial Chamber to decide. He added that at the moment Judge Robinson was the presiding Judge of Trial Chamber III. According to a journalist, the BBC had reported that Milosevic had filed his list of witnesses. Asked if he could confirm this, Landale replied that he could confirm that Milosevic had filed his list of witnesses and exhibit list pursuant to Rule 65 ter (G). Those lists were now before the Judges for review, he added. Asked for an indication as to how long that process would take, Landale replied that he did not have any firm indication. Asked to confirm that the list included 1,631 witness names, Landale replied that he could confirm that fact. Asked whether the witness list was confidential at the request of the Defence, Landale replied that it was confidential because it was under review by the Judges. A journalist stated that there had been instances in the past where witness lists had been made public, for example in the Blagojevic case when the Prosecution published the summaries that accompanied the witness list and the complete witness list before the Prosecution case began. Asked whether it would not be true to say that witness lists in general were always confidential, Landale replied that in this case the list was being reviewed by the Trial Chamber and was therefore confidential. Asked whether he could confirm that the names of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were on the witness list, Landale replied that he had no comment regarding this question. Asked to confirm that the trial was going to continue on 8 June as previously scheduled, Landale replied that nothing had changed and that 8 June was the scheduled date for the start of the Defence case. Asked why they believed the amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Evidence were adopted last week and how those amendments related to the Tribunal’s completion strategy, Landale replied that it was pursuant the latest Security Council resolution which called for indictments to be filed against only the most senior people most responsible for crimes that fell under the jurisdiction and Statute of the ICTY. He added that in order to align that with the ICTY Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Judges had met in a plenary session last week and adopted the amendment to Rule 28. It was consistent with the Security Council resolution, he concluded. Asked how the amendment would affect the work of the OTP, Hartmann replied that it depended. She added that the Prosecutor was planning to ask the President for some clarification on the issue, for example with regards to the criteria to be used. The Decision was taken by the Judges and the Prosecution was not informed. Asked to confirm that the Prosecution was not informed in advance about the amendment to this Rule, Hartmann replied that they were not. A journalist stated that the amendment meant that the Judges had the final word regarding who would be indicted, not on the basis of the evidence that was in the indictment, but if they decided that this person was senior or not. Landale said that it was his understanding that it was part of the whole confirmation process, so based on whether or not there was a prima facie case and also taking into consideration whether this person held a most senior position. That would be for the Judges to decide, he said. The journalist went on to say that she did not understand why that was the case because the Prosecutor had already said that she was concentrating on the more senior individuals responsible. Asked why the Judges needed to add the resolution and a new set of Rules, unless they wanted to have more control over what the Prosecution was doing, Landale replied that the Judges felt that the Rules needed to reflect the direction in which the Security Council wanted this institution to focus its energies, so they had accordingly adopted the relevant Rule in the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence. A journalist read out the following paragraph from a letter from the French President of the Security Council "la France souhaite préciser que le nécessaire respect des dates d’achèvement des travaux du Tribunal Pénal International pour l’ex-Yugoslavie et du Tribunal Pénal International pour le Rwanda, dûment rappelé par la résolution 1534, ne saurait être interprété comme portant atteinte au principe d’indépendance des deux tribunaux et à la séparation des fonctions en leur sein conformément aux dispositions pertinentes de leur Statut et de leur Règlement de Preuve et de Procédure respectifs". The journalist stated that he understood that this letter from the President of the Security Council said that the new resolution should not be interpreted as a call to change the Rules or the Statute of the Tribunal. Asked if she felt this change was initiated by the Security Council, as the letter appeared to be a clear statement that it must be done within the existing Statute and the Rules, Hartmann reiterated that the Prosecutor would ask for some clarifications regarding criteria. She said that Security Council resolution 1503 of August 28 called on the Tribunal’s separate bodies to make sure that they indicted and tried the most senior people. The OTP believed it had said in its completion strategy (which was initiated by the Prosecutor before it was mentioned and the date settled in the UN Security Council resolution of 8 August) that it would focus on the most senior perpetrators. The most senior people did not necessarily mean that they should be Heads of State. It was something that had to be discussed, which was why the Prosecutor would ask for some clarification as to what they felt the most senior was according to their criteria, she concluded. Asked, following what was just read out, whether it was in accordance with the letter and also whether the letter was in the spirit of the resolution to actually have consulted with the OTP before having introduced these changes, Hartmann replied that the OTP was not consulted. Asked why this was a total surprise for the OTP, Landale replied that he was not aware whether it was or was not a surprise to the OTP. He added that he could only discuss what he was aware of. Asked for confirmation of reports last week that the OTP was issuing more Indictments against high ranking Bosnian officials, Hartmann replied that she would not comment on allegations. ***** |