THREE NEW JUDGES SWORN IN BEFORE UN’S BALKANS WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

Three new permanent judges were sworn in today before the United Nations war crimes tribunal that was set up to try people accused of committing the worst offences during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.

Guy Delvoie of Belgium, Howard Morrison of the United Kingdom and Sir Burton Hall of the Bahamas were sworn in at a ceremony in The Hague, where the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is based, after being appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this year.

The three judges will serve either until the end of 2010 or sooner if the cases to which they are assigned are completed, according to a press release issued by the ICTY. Under a completion strategy mapped out with the Security Council, the tribunal aims to finish all trials at first instance by the end of this year and then start downsizing next year.

The ICTY has 16 permanent judges and 12 "ad litem" judges, who are appointed to sit on specific trials.

The new judges, who have all had lengthy legal careers, succeed Christine Van Den Wyngaert, Lord Iain Bonomy and Mohamed Shahabuddeen, who have resigned.

Judge Delvoie, 62, served most recently as the President of the Brussels Court of Appeal, and has worked also as a legal professor.

A former defence counsel at the ICTY, Judge Morrison, 60, has also worked as a judge or magistrate in several countries.

Judge Hall, 61, was elected by the UN General Assembly as an ad litem judge at the ICTY in 2005 and has been Chief Justice of the Bahamas since 2001.

The Tribunal has concluded proceedings against 120 accused, out of 161 indicted. Proceedings are ongoing for 41 accused, but two suspects – Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladi and the ethnic Serb politician Goran Hadži– are still at large.
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UN TRIBUNAL REVERSES CONTEMPT OF COURT CONVICTION OF FORMER KOSOVO MINISTER

UN TRIBUNAL REVERSES CONTEMPT OF COURT CONVICTION OF FORMER KOSOVO MINISTER
New York, Jul 23 2009 2:00PM
The United Nations war crimes tribunal set up in the wake of the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s today overturned the conviction of Kosovo's ex-minister of culture, youth and sports for contempt of court for trying to intimidate a trial witness, but upheld the conviction on the same charge of one of his political advisers.

The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (<"http://www.icty.org/sid/10193">ICTY) ruled that it was reversing the conviction of Astrit Haraqija, who was sentenced last December to five months' imprisonment, but affirming the conviction and sentence for Bajrush Morina, who was given three months in jail.

Mr. Haraqija and Mr. Morina had both appealed their contempt of court convictions for intimidating a protected witness in the trial of the former Kosovo Albanian military leader Ramush Haradinaj and others. Prosecutors had also appealed, asking for the sentences to be increased.

The ICTY appeals chamber found that the trial chamber had given too much weight to untested evidence, largely based on "double or even triple hearsay," when it concluded that Mr. Haraqija had influence over Mr. Morina and had instructed him to commit the crime of contempt. But it rejected Mr. Morina's grounds of appeal.

The two men had been on provisional release since earlier this year, having already served the duration of the sentences imposed by the trial chamber.

In 2008, the ICTY, which is based in The Hague, acquitted Mr. Haradinaj and his co-accused Idriz Balaj of charges they were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo 10 years earlier. Another co-accused, Lahi Brahimaj, was sentenced to six years' jail for the cruel treatment and torture of two persons.
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US LEGAL EXPERT APPOINTED AS REGISTRAR OF UN-BACKED TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON KILLINGS

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed David Tolbert of the United States as the Registrar of the United Nations-backed tribunal set up to try the perpetrators of recent political killings in Lebanon, including the February 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Mr. Tolbert will succeed Robin Vincent at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, an independent body based in The Hague, Netherlands.

"The Secretary-General is grateful for Mr. Vincent's assistance in the establishment and commencement of the Tribunal's work," UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters.

Mr. Tolbert, who will take up his duties on 26 August, has served in a number of senior capacities with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which is responsible for trying those responsible for the worst crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.

He also served as the Secretary-General's Special Expert on UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials.

The President of the Tribunal, which began its operations in early March, is Antonio Cassese of Italy. Daniel Bellemare, a Canadian prosecutor and former head of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) into the murders, serves as the court's Prosecutor.
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