A former editor in chief of Slobodna Dalmacija daily, Josip Jovic, told Hina by phone he had expected further talks with the UN court's investigators. "They promised it and gave my attorneys time to prepare the defence." He was interviewed by the investigators at the tribunal's Zagreb office in June.
Jovic said he would not appear voluntarily in The Hague based only on the tribunal's indictment, but would do so only after a decision by a competent court in Croatia.
The Hague tribunal scheduled for September 26 the first appearance of Jovic and the other accused journalist, Hrvatsko Slovo editor in chief Marijan Krizic.
"No comment," said Krizic when asked to comment on the indictment, the initial appearance before the tribunal and his method of defence.
Asked how he would defend himself, Jovic said: "Journalists don't take part in court proceedings and it is not up to them if a witness will be protected. In The Hague they know very well who leaked that testimony".
Jovic said he was in possession of evidence showing that at one time the Hague tribunal revealed the identity of the witness in question on its website, adding that the testimony transcript was withdrawn the next day.
The Hague tribunal has already indicted for contempt of court Hrvatsko Slovo weekly publisher Stjepan Seselj and the weekly's former editor in chief, Domagoj Margetic, for publishing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic's testimony at the trial of Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic in November 1998.
Jovic was asked if in his defence he would use the precedent of Montenegrin journalist Dusko Jovanovic. The Hague tribunal withdrew a contempt of court indictment against Jovanovic after he apologised for disclosing the identity of a protected witness and the witness agreed in writing that the indictment be withdrawn.
Jovic said this depended on what the apology should say and added he expected President Mesic to urge the Hague tribunal to withdraw the indictments against the Croatian journalists.
Anto Nobilo, who defended Blaskic before the Hague tribunal and whom the indicted Croatian journalists cite as the secret leak of protected testimonies, told Hina by phone he had never revealed a witness's identity to the press and that he had made court documents available only to Croatian state officials with whom he had cooperated while preparing Blaskic's defence.
Nobilo said he agreed with the prosecution of the person who made the disputed information available to the press.
He suggested Jovic received the protected transcripts from "people we now call the intelligence underworld who were working against Blaskic the whole time".
Asked if the UN court was investigating him for disclosing protected testimonies from the Blaskic trial, Nobilo answered in the negative, reiterating that he had never given the transcript in question to a journalist.
"I have Blaskic's transcript since 1998. Mesic's testimony was evidently placed in the media by his political opponents after he became president (in 2000). It is absolutely clear who wanted to discredit Mesic and to what end. I never took part in that," Nobilo said, adding he shared Mesic's political views.