ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, March 25 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has asked the Croatian government to hand over an indictment to retired General Janko Bobetko or to his lawyers, and announced
that immediately upon the serving, it will suspend the warrant for the arrest of this Croatian high-ranking officer.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, March 25 (Hina) - The International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has asked the Croatian
government to hand over an indictment to retired General Janko
Bobetko or to his lawyers, and announced that immediately upon the
serving, it will suspend the warrant for the arrest of this Croatian
high-ranking officer. #L#
The Croatian government on Tuesday stated that it had received the
order from the ICTY regarding the Bobetko indictment.
Judge Carmel Agius has asked Zagreb to confirm the hand-over of the
indictment within 15 days after the issuing of the said order, i.e.
by 4 April.
"Judge Agius also ordered that the warrants of arrest and orders for
surrender issued by the Tribunal on 17 and 20 September be suspended
immediately upon service of the Indictment, and that the Croatian
authorities provide to the Registrar of the Tribunal an updated
medical report on the Accused?s health on a monthly basis,"
according to the latest report from the ICTY on this matter.
The Croatian government has reported it forwarded judge Agius's
order to the justice ministry to act on it according to relevant
proceedings, and informed Bobetko's lawyers about the order.
One of Bobetko's attorneys, Petar Sale, said the ICTY's order
"cannot be implemented and nothing can be done in line with it."
"The general is at hospital, and according to a doctors' team, he
neither can receive nor give his opinion on the indictment," Sale
said adding that such were the findings of ICTY-appointed doctors
who also examined the general earlier.
Sale added that the lawyers could not receive the indictment on
behalf of other persons, given that this institute was not known
either in Croatian or ICTY laws.
He added that Gen. Bobetko actually had no legal representative
before the Hague-based UN tribunal, as that court had not issued
confirmation that it had accepted the lawyers.
Sale also reminded of the promise given by Premier Ivica Racan to
his client that the indictment would not be served on him and no
means of force applied if he went to hospital.
Asked whether he and Bosiljko Misetic were Bobetko's lawyers, Sale
answered that they were his legal representatives before Croatian
courts. Sale explained that the letter authorising him and Misetic
to represent Bobetko before Croatian courts and other authorities
had been sent to the Croatian government, and the two lawyers had no
authority to represent Bobetko before the ICTY.
The order for serving the indictment on Bobetko "followed Judge
Agius? Decision on 19 March 2003 on the 'Motion of the Prosecutor to
Schedule a Fitness Hearing and to Take Related Measures', in which
Judge Agius had considered that a medical report filed by experts
appointed by the Registrar 'clearly shows that the Accused is unfit
to travel and to stand trial before this Tribunal' and that 'the
only matter which is relevant as to the further conduct of the case
is to establish a monthly monitoring mechanism in order to assess
the medical condition of the Accused and to report on his state of
health to the relevant Tribunal authorities'", according to the
ICTY.
Judge Agius considered that as indictee Bobetko was unfit to
travel, "it is justified to suspend the warrants for the Accused?s
arrest and the orders for surrender, pending a change in the
Accused?s state of health that would allow him to stand trial,"
according to the judge's decision.
(hina) ms sb