Kosovo journalist facing contempt charges before UN war crimes tribunal
20 May 2008 - A Kosovo Albanian journalist is being brought before the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to deal with the
war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s on charges of contempt of court after he allegedly
identified a secret witness in a trial.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) allege that Baton Haxhiu, the editor
of a newspaper last year, obtained information about a witness with a protected identity and then revealed the witness'
identity in an article he published.
Mr. Haxhiu was arrested today, the ICTY said in a press statement issued in The Hague, and will now be transferred to
the detention unit of the tribunal. He is expected to enter a plea tomorrow.
Mr. Haxhiu is the third Kosovo Albanian to be charged with contempt of court in the past month, with all three cases
relating to the recent trial of Ramush Haradinaj, the former prime minister of Kosovo, and others.
On 25 April, Astrit Haraqija and Bajrush Morina were indicted for allegedly attempting to persuade a witness with the
codename PW not to testify against Mr. Haradinaj. The duo has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been granted
provisional release until the trial begins next month.
Mr. Haradinaj, who was a prominent commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the conflict with Serb forces in
1998-99, was acquitted by the ICTY last month of a series of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity,
including murder, rape, torture, abduction, cruel treatment, imprisonment and the forced deportation of Serbian and
Kosovar Roma civilians.
When they announced the verdict, the judges said the tribunal had encountered many difficulties in securing testimony
from witnesses during the trials of Mr. Haradinaj and his two co-accused.
Earlier this month prosecutors filed an appeal in the Haradinaj case, describing what they called the "prevailing
circumstances of intimidation and fear."
ENDS