JURIST - Paper Chase: ICTY indicts journalist for exposing witness in ex-Kosovo PM war crimes trial

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Tuesday indicted [PDF text] a Kosovar journalist on contempt of court charges for allegedly revealing the identity of a witness in the war crimes trial of former Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj [TrialWatch profile; JURIST news archive]. Baton Haxhiu was promptly arrested on the charge [Shekulli report, in Albanian]. Haradinaj was acquitted [JURIST report] in April, but former Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s claims of witness intimidation have cast doubt on the proceedings. Prosecutors are now appealing. AP has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

Haradinaj was a senior commander of the KLA, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force that opposed Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war [BBC backgrounder]. He was indicted [initial indictment, PDF] by ICTY prosecutors in 2005.

5/21/08 - According to Reuters, Hoxhiu pleaded not guilty [Reuters report] in the Hague on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, the ICTY assigned German lawyer Christian Kemperdick as duty counsel for Hoxhiu [order, PDF] until permanent counsel is assigned.

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