Milosevic trial's spokeswoman fined for disclosures

Published on Monday 14 September 2009 22:15

THE war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found its former spokeswoman guilty yesterday of disclosing confidential information related to the trial of the former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

Florence Hartmann, a French former journalist who had covered the war in the Balkans, was charged with contempt after she published information in a 2007 book and a 2008 article in violation of a tribunal order.

"The chamber is satisfied the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused knowingly and wilfully interfered with the administration of justice," said Bakone Moloto, a judge for the tribunal.

Hartmann, who worked as a spokeswoman for the tribunal's prosecutor between 2000 and 2006, was found guilty on two charges of contempt and fined 7,000 (6,170).

Hartmann had written that information about Serbian state institutions' role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide was not made public during the Milosevic trial because judges granted Serbian requests for confidentiality.

Milosevic died in 2006 during his war crimes trial.