The ICTY today made public an order by Judge O-Gon Kwon scheduling the initial appearance of Marijacic and Rebic for June 14.
Rebic, a former advisor to the Croatian president on national security, told Hina over the phone he would honour the ICTY's order.
"I will not go (to The Hague) only if Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt forbid me to go," Rebic said.
Asked how he would plead, he replied: "I will plead not guilty, of course."
Ivica Marijacic too confirmed in a phone interview that he would appear before Judge Kwon on June 14 and enter a plea of not guilty.
Rebic's attorney Veljko Miljevic said his client's decision to respond to the tribunal's order was a "sign of respect for the rule of law and civilised behaviour".
Marijacic's attorney Marin Ivanovic was not available for comment.
The Justice Ministry has been informed by the ICTY Registrar that it will receive documents on Marijacic and Rebic that will be forwarded on Wednesday to the county courts in Zagreb and Zadar, which will hand them to the accused, the Justice Minister's assistant in charge of cooperation with the ICTY, Jaksa Muljacic, said.
Judge Kwon said in his order, among other things, that the Croatian authorities should notify Rebic and Marijacic of their legal obligation to surrender to the jurisdiction of the tribunal and be present in The Hague so that they could be tried for contempt of court when so decided by the trial chamber.
The Croatian authorities are also expected to inform Marijacic and Rebic that if they fail to appear in court, the trial chamber will order their arrest and transfer to The Hague, Judge Kwon said.
The indictment against Marijacic and Rebic was confirmed on April 26, 2005. The two are charged with one count of contempt of court for disclosing to "Hrvatski list" on November 18, 2004 the identity of a protected witness and his statement at a closed hearing in the trial of Tihomir Blaskic on December 19, 1997.
On the same day, the tribunal issued an indictment for contempt of court against Stjepan Seselj, as the publisher, and Domagoj Margetic, as the editor-in-chief of the "Hrvatsko slovo" paper, for revealing the identity and publishing parts of a transcript of a testimony by another protected witness in the Blaskic trial on March 16, 1998. The article was published on November 26, 2004.
Under Rule 77 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, contempt of court is punishable with a prison term of up to seven years and a fine amounting to up to 100,000 euros or a combination of both.
The sentence imposed in two previous cases of contempt of court was four months' imprisonment.