A Croatian journalist charged by the UN war crimes tribunal with contempt of court for publishing the secret testimony of a protected witness on the Internet on Friday moved his website to a U.S. server and host, prompting the tribunal to issue an order demanding the California company terminate the site.

Domagoj Margetic on Wednesday posted on his personal website what appeared to be testimony by Croatian President Stipe Mesic during the 1997 trial of former Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic, press reports said.

By early Thursday, the audio recording of the testimony posted on Margetic's website was blocked by police order, police official Marijan Benko said.

The Zagreb county court on Thursday issued an order to close down and terminate Margetic's website, www.domagojmargetic.com.

Margetic then switched the information on his website--including the secret testimony--to a U.S.-based server and host, www.lunarpages.com, located in California.

"I believe that the United States will prevent the UN war crimes tribunal from trampling on basic press freedoms," Margetic said. "The ball is now in America's court. I believe that as a journalist the U.S. will not allow this assault on freedom of information to happen."

The Zagreb-based Vjecerni List reports that the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague will issue a court order to the California firm to take down and remove Margetic's website.

Meanwhile, Mesic's office said the president wanted to remove the secrecy from his testimony.

"Mesic agreed that Zagreb asks from the UN court to remove the notion of secrecy from his testimony in order that it becomes available to the Croatian public," his spokeswoman Danijela Barisic told AFP.

Last year the UN tribunal in The Hague charged Margetic, a former journalist with the conservative Hrvatsko Slovo newspaper, four other Croatian journalists and the country's former intelligence chief with contempt of court for revealing the identity of a witness during the trial. The witness was Mesic, according to local media.

They have all pleaded not guilty.

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http://www.hina.hr/nws-bin/genews.cgi?TOP=hot&NID=ehot/politika/H1129200.4yc
WEB SITE OF CONTROVERSIAL CROATIAN REPORTER REMOVED FROM INTERNET

ZAGREB, Jan 12 (Hina) - The Internet site of controversial reporter Domagoj Margetic, who is indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for contempt of court, has been closed in compliance with an order of the Zagreb County Court's investigating judge, the spokesman for the Croatian Interior Ministry, Zlatko Mehun, said on Thursday evening.

The web site with the address www.domagojmargetic.com has been closed and removed from the Internet, the spokesman told Hina.

Acting on the judge's order, the Zagreb crime police also searched the computer and its components as well as the medium for the storage of data in the digital form which two Croatian citizens possess and use, but Mehun declined to reveal the name of those two persons.

The police operation was carried out at two locations.

Asked whether Domagoj Margetic's flat was searched alongside the computer, Mehun answered that the search of the computer also required a warrant for the search of the facilities where the computer was placed. However, this did not refer to Margetic but to another two Croatian citizens and two locations in the Republic of Croatia," the spokesman explained, giving no other information.

Although the court banned him from publicly presenting a testimony a protected witness had given at the trial of Bosnian Croat Tihomir Blasic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Margetic published the testimony in question on his web site on Wednesday evening. The protected witness is the current Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who gave the testimony while he was an opposition politician.

On Thursday morning it was reported that President Mesic had accepted a proposal by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader that the Hague war crimes tribunal should be requested to declassify the president's protected testimony before the tribunal and make it available to the public.

(Hina) ms
12.01.2006. 22:40 MET

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http://www.rferl.org/newsline/fulltext.asp
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY

JOURNALIST POSTS CROATIAN PRESIDENT'S TESTIMONY
ON INTERNET IN DEFIANCE OF COURT ORDER

Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic on 11 January posted an audio recording of President Stipe Mesic testifying at the Hague-based ICTY in defiance of a court order, Hina reported the same day. Police in Zagreb raided the offices of the Croatian Disabled War Veterans Association (HVIDRA) on 9 January and detained Margetic to prevent him from playing the recording there (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 January 2005). The audiotape records Mesic's testimony in the trial of Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic. The Hague war crimes tribunal has indicted Margetic for publishing part of the protected testimony in the Croatian press. BW

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http://www.hina.hr/nws-bin/genews.cgi?TOP=hot&NID=ehot/politika/H1129091.4yc

ZAGREB POLICE CRIME INVESTIGATION DIVISION CHIEF FIRED OVER HVIDRA RAID

ZAGREB, Jan 12 (Hina) - The chief of the Zagreb Police Crime Investigation Division, Zeljko Prsa, has been relieved of his duties for lack of tact shown by the police during Monday's raid on the offices of the Disabled War Veterans Association (HVIDRA), Interior Minister Ivica Kirin announced at a press conference on Thursday.

The police did not break the law or exceed their authority, but the whole case could have been handled in such a way as not to harm the reputation of the police or disabled war veterans, Kirin said.

The minister said that the raid could have been avoided altogether and that journalist Domagoj Margetic, who is indicted by the Hague war crimes tribunal, could have been thwarted before in his design to play in the HVIDRA offices a recording of protected testimony given before the tribunal by President Stjepan Mesic.

Kirin insisted that the police had not beaten up war veterans during the raid.
However, one of the HVIDRA members who had been arrested in the raid turned up at the press conference and called the minister a liar.

"The minister did not tell the truth nor did these gentlemen here (referring to police director Marijan Benko and state secretary Ivica Buconjic). The police did overstep their authority," Ante Jurendic said. "We were taken in as a criminal organisation, and we did not even think of putting up even passive resistance," he added.

Kirin responded by saying that he had asked HVIDRA to present its evidence to show that the police had acted against the law. He said that HVIDRA should have submitted the recording and thus make the work of the police easier.

Reiterating that he was only interested in the truth, Kirin said that the police would never again be used against war veterans as long as he was in office.

The minister said that Prsa's dismissal was only the first step in sorting out the situation in all police departments to ensure that superior officers start taking responsibility for orders they give. Other dismissals will follow once the internal investigation is over, he added.
Benko said that the police would pay special attention to training in order to avoid a repetition of the situation that occurred in the HVIDRA offices, and stressed that the police would certainly continue to enforce court orders.

Commenting on the announcement by Margetic that he would post the disputed testimony on his Internet site, Benko said that the police had already blocked access to the recording on that web page.

HVIDRA's Zagreb branch said at a press conference on Thursday it had pressed charges against chief of police Kresimir Sulc and three unidentified police officers for illegal search of premises, ill-treatment and causing bodily harm.

(Hina) vm
12.01.2006. 15:36 MET

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