Hartmann convicted for contempt at the ICTY

September 18th, 2009 • ICL, Law
Tags: contempt, ICL, ICTR, icty, international criminal law, Law

The judgement isn’t out yet, but EJIL:Talk! reports that Florence Hartmann has been found guilty of contempt by an ICTY Trial Chamber for disclosing information that was protected by an order of an ICTY Chamber.

This was a particularly controversial case – Hartmann used to work as a spokesman for the ICTY Prosecutor, there were some issues involving the rights of States, and the information that she disclosed, in a book and an article, was argued to be already in the public domain. The Chamber seems to have disagreed – finding that the information was not in the public domain and fining her €7,000.

From the looks of the summary of the judgement, it likes like the ICTY is continuing down a very strict reading of the Rules in relation to contempt, that lowers the bar for contempt prosecutions. While, as noted by Kevin Heller at Opinio Juris, “There is no question that Hartmann knowingly violated Tribunal rules”, should this be enough to justify a finding of contempt?

Rule 77 of both Tribunals states that “The Tribunal in the exercise of its inherent power may hold in contempt those who knowingly and wilfully interfere with its administration of justice” (it also provides some examples of actions that can result in a finding of contempt, including disclosure of information in contravention of an order).

Following Margetic, Jovic, Haxiu and Nobilo, and mostly recently Nshogoza, the Tribunals have taken a very strict approach to this rule.

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