The 48-hour deadline started last night, when Margetic was arrested in Slavonski Brod and transferred to a prison in Zagreb after he refused earlier in the day to be served with an injunction from the Hague tribunal. The injunction reportedly bans him from publishing a list of 102 protected witnesses from the trial of Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic.
Margetic told reporters that he published the list on an Internet portal via an American server and that the portal was closed down a few days ago at the order of the Hague tribunal.
Since the injunction is confidential, it is not known what the tribunal wants from Margetic and what he is charged with. It is believed that he is charged with contempt of court and disclosure of the identity of protected witnesses.
Margetic told reporters yesterday that he contested the tribunal's jurisdiction for the prosecution of Croatian journalists, himself included, because the tribunal's statute did not envisage a procedure under which such an injunction could be served to a journalist who published a piece of information while performing his professional duty.