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26 April 2008 The Hague_ The Prosecution of the UN War Crimes Tribunal has indicted a former Kosovo minister and a journalist for their role in the Haradinaj trial. The former Culture Minister in the Kosovo government, Astrit Haraqia and editor of daily Bota Sot, Bajrush Morina, have been charged with contempt of court by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, at the Hague.
The indictment alleges that the pair tried to persuade a witness not to testify in the war crimes trial against Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo’s former Prime Minister.
Haradinaj was acquitted by the Tribunal earlier this month, of charges accusing him of taking part in a conspiracy to drive Serbs out of Kosovo through murder, rape and torture. Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/9128
The court statement says the witness in question was granted protection in 2005 and his unedited statements were disclosed only to Haradinaj, his two co-defendants and their lawyers.
According to the document Haraqia was one of the co-founders of the "Defence committee for Ramush Haradinaj" and upon learning of the identity of the witness in July, he instructed Morina to travel to the witness's country of residence to persuade him not to testify against Haradinaj. Morina met the witness on a trip paid for by the ministry, prosecutors allege.
"The witness refused to succumb to the pressure and eventually testified at the trial," the court said.
The contempt indictment was first filed to the court in January, and was disclosed to the public on Friday evening. The Hague Tribunal has not specified when both will appear in the court.
During Haradinaj’s trail there were widespread allegations of witnesses being intimidated, and several pulled out, resulting in complaints by former top war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte.