The minister, however, expressed hoped that the "incident" would not bring into question the referral of the Ademi-Norac case to the Croatian judiciary.
After the president of the Croatian Party of Rights and mayor of Osijek, Anto Djapic, announced the names of possible protected witnesses who could testify about war crimes allegedly committed against Serb civilians in Osijek in 19991, some media reported that Minister Skare Ozbolt received a letter from The Hague in which the ICTY expressed concern saying that the institution of protected witness was not functioning in Croatia.
Asked to comment on the letter, Skare Ozbolt said: "I have not seen any letter. I only received Hague tribunal representative Thomas Osorio who informed me about the fact that the names of protected witnesses were being made public."
Asked if this would reflect on the Ademi-Norac case in a way that the case would be sent back to the Hague and not referred to the Croatian judiciary, the justice minister said she hoped not. "I hope this entire episode would end with this incident (...) and that it would not bring into question the referral of the Ademi-Norac case (to the Croatian judiciary)," Skare Ozblot said.
Asked if she would ask the State Prosecutor's Office to get involved, the minister said "the Office has already been asked to get involved". "After I receive a report (from the Prosecutor's Office) I will report to the Hague tribunal," she said.
Asked if she has been informed of the initiative launched by General Ante Gotovina's attorneys to set up a fund for raising money for Gotovina's defence and the left over money would go to the charity, Skare Ozbolt said this was clearly an initiative launched by the defence attorneys, saying that she would not comment on it.
Asked if she has been informed of the fact that the ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte arrived in Zagreb on September 30 but she knew that Gotovina was in the Canaries on September 29, Skare Ozbolt said she was not informed of that, adding that all operations regarding investigations were in the jurisdiction of other bodies.