ZAGREB, Jan 7 (Hina) - The Croatian government consulted the prosecutor's office of the Hague war crimes tribunal in connection with the hand-over of documents already in the possession of the office to the attorneys of indicted
general Ante Gotovina because it found itself in a dead-end situation, office spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said on Wednesday.
ZAGREB, Jan 7 (Hina) - The Croatian government consulted the
prosecutor's office of the Hague war crimes tribunal in connection
with the hand-over of documents already in the possession of the
office to the attorneys of indicted general Ante Gotovina because it
found itself in a dead-end situation, office spokeswoman Florence
Hartmann said on Wednesday.#L#
"The Croatian government found itself in a situation where it risked
breaking Croatian laws or the law binding it to cooperate with the
Hague tribunal," Hartmann told Hina when asked what the prosecutor's
office thought of the hand-over of the documents to Gotovina's defence
team.
The government last week passed a decision to act on a ruling of the
Zagreb Municipal Court to deliver the documents. Gotovina, who is at
large, is accused of crimes committed during and after 1995's
Operation Storm.
"We analysed the documents that had been requested and saw that their
publication before time would not hurt the case," Hartmann said,
adding that the documents were of a nature for which it was
established that early publication was not damaging.
Hartmann said chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte had decided to make an
exception and okay the hand-over of the documents, but added this did
not mean a change of rules of procedure.
Until now, the prosecutor's office had dismissed the possibility of
submitting the documents to Gotovina's lawyers, claiming that by doing
so Croatia would breach its commitments towards the tribunal.
The law remains the same and the country must arrest the fugitive and
turn him over to the tribunal, Hartmann said.
(Hina) ha sb