Jim Landale voiced hope that Jovic, who is in custody in the southern Croatian port of Split, would be transferred to The Hague so that he could enter a plea to the charges in accordance with procedure. He said the tribunal expected the transfer to occur as soon as possible.
Landale recalled that the other five Croatian journalists charged with contempt of the UN court had appeared before the tribunal, entered their pleas and returned home the same day. He said the same thing expected Jovic.
Asked to comment on the request by OSCE media commissioner Miklos Harszti that Jovic be released, Landale said he only knew that Harszti had written to Hague tribunal president Theodor Meron and that he could make no comment because Meron was in New York.
Jovic, former editor-in-chief of Slobodna Dalmacija daily, was arrested on October 6 by Croatian police acting on a September 28 arrest warrant issued by the Hague tribunal after he failed to appear before the court to plead.
On 9 September, the tribunal indicted him for having revealed in his articles the identity and excerpts of a testimony of a protected witness at the trial of former Bosnian Croat military leader General Tihomir Blaskic.