Open Secret Mesic was Witness

Croatian Journalist Fails To Appear At UN War Crimes Court

THE HAGUE (Associated Press)--A contempt hearing against a Croatian newspaper editor was scrapped by the U.N. war crimes tribunal Monday after he failed to appear.

Prosecutors accuse Josip Jovic of defying a court injunction in December 2000 and publishing the name of a protected witness. It was an open secret that the witness was Stipe Mesic, the current president of Croatia.

After refusing to appear for his arraignment, Jovic was arrested and brought to The Hague in 2005. He pleaded innocent and was released pending trial. His lawyer promised then he would appear.

The court rescheduled Monday's hearing for July 11 and warned Jovic it will put out a new arrest warrant for him if he fails to appear again. Mesic was the president of Yugoslavia in 1991-1992 when Croatia seceded and Yugoslavia descended into war.

He testified in 1998 in the trial of former Col. Tihomir Blaskic, a Bosnian Croat, with a promise his identity and testimony would be kept secret. Blaskic was convicted and released in 2005 after serving eight years in prison.

Jovic, a former editor of the Croatian daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija, published Mesic's name and parts of his testimony in November. He repeated the offense in December in defiance of a court warning. Mesic also testified later in public at former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial.

Jovic's arrest in 2005 triggered protests from media and human rights groups at home and abroad, who claimed his prosecution endangers freedom of the press. If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison and a EUR100,000 fine.

Prosecutors say if reporters don't respect the court's injunction on revealing protected witnesses, witnesses who fear retaliation may not come forward in future war crimes cases.

The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, dropped charges against three other journalists in June, citing "the interest of justice and judicial economy." She is under pressure to conclude all cases by 2010.