 THE HAGUE -The trial of Croatian journalist Josip JovicÂ’s on charges of contempt of court opened at the UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia here Tuesday after a weekÂ’s delay because the defendant failed to show.
| He's on trial for contempt and he fails to show ... |
On Tuesday Jovic was in court and took the stand to testify. He is the editor of the Croatian newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija and has been charged with contempt because he revealed that Croatian president Stipe Mesic testified during the 1997 trial in The Hague of Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic as a protected witness. The confidentiality measures for Mesic have since been lifted, the prosecutor said Tuesday.
Jovic testified Tuesday that he had not obeyed an order of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to stop publishing the name of Mesic as a protected witness. “It is quite obvious that I flaunted the order but what was not clear to me is whether as a resident of the republic of Croatia I was bound to obey the order,” Jovic said Tuesday.
| "So howdja them apples, huh?" |
JovicÂ’s defence stressed that Mesic did not ask for protective measures from the court and has nothing against his testimony being made public. If convicted, Jovic could be sentenced to up to seven years imprisonment or fined up to 100,000 euros (128,000 dollars).
| Or he could be taunted by Carla del Ponte. |
In March former Croatian intelligence chief Markica Rebic and Ivica Marijacic, editor-in-chief of the Hrvatski List newspaper were fined 15,000 euros (18,150 dollars) for contempt of court. Rebic was convicted of supplying Marijacic with the name of another protected witness who also testified in the Blaskic case in 1997. Hrvatski List published the name in November 2004.
Witness protection is a key focus of the ICTY as it tries to gather evidence of war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.
| I'm sympathetic to protecting witnesses, but this whole series of trials long ago descended into farce. |
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