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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 9 June 1999
Time: 11:30 a.m. 

REGISTRY AND CHAMBERS
Today, Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following announcements:

Dragan Kolundzija arrived at the detention unit at 1115 p.m. on Monday night and was committed to the custody of the Tribunal. We are still waiting for his case to be assigned to a Trial Chamber and for a date to be set for his initial appearance. This should happen sometime today.

Also on Monday night, Milan Simic, who was on provisional release from the Tribunal’s custody on grounds of ill health, returned to the detention unit. Simic, who is disabled and confined to a wheel chair, is now being housed in a specially adapted room that meets all the requirements and needs of someone in his condition.

OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR

Paul Risley, Spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), announced that the Prosecutor had noted that the G8 draft resolution language reflected properly the authority of the Tribunal and its need to gain access to Kosovo.

Risley also announced that the Prosecutor was currently meeting a group of lawyers who had requested the investigation and indictment of NATO. She had received such groups before, he said. The Prosecutor had asserted the Tribunal’s jurisdiction over all individual participants in the territory without exception, and he added that she stated again that she would not comment on the existence or progress of any ongoing investigation.

QUESTIONS:

• Asked who the visiting group of lawyers comprised of, Risley answered that, although he had not met the group, he believed it consisted of five or six lawyers, including Professor Michael Mandel from Canada.

• Asked whether the group brought information for the Tribunal whether they came soley to discuss the possibility of indictments, Risley replied that he thought they had brought some information.

• Asked whether the group had proposed indicting the KLA, Risley replied that he was under the impression that the group had only wanted to discuss members of NATO.

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