Marijacic and Rebic were indicted on 10 February 2005 for publishing a protected testimony in the case against former Bosnian Croat commander Tihomir Blaskic. At the time relevant to the indictment, Marijacic was a journalist and editor-in-chief of the Hrvatski List weekly and Rebic was the former head of Croatia's Security Information Service (SIS).
Addressing a pre-trial conference on Tuesday, prosecutor David Akerson said that the order of 6 June 1997 was not of critical importance for proving the contempt charges, and that the protection referred to the sensitive material about which the protected witness had testified and not to his safety.
Defence counsel Kresimir Krsnik and Marin Ivanovic welcomed the decision, saying that they had highlighted the weaknesses of the indictment in their motions.
In its decision of 16 January 2006, the Appeals Chamber lifted protection measures concerning protected testimony given by UNPROFOR Dutch officer Johannes van Kuijk in closed session at the Blaskic trial on 16 December 1997.
Presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said that the Chamber wanted the trial to be completed in two business days, on Tuesday and Wednesday, as indicated in an earlier order.