Former spokesperson of The Hague Tribunal Florence Hartmann is on provisional release after five days spend in detention. She was arrested for not serving the sentence for contempt of the court.
President of the Mechanism for international tribunals Theodor Meron reached a decision to release Hartmann after serving two thirds of the seven-day prison sentence imposed on her in 2011.
“President Meron appreciated her extraordinary behaviour in the detention unit,” The Tribunal stated.
Hartmann was arrested on Thursday, March 24, when she came to attend the pronouncement of verdict for the former president of the Republika Srpska Radovan Karadžić.
In 2011, The Tribunal sentenced her to seven days in prison for contempt of the court.
In November 2011, The Tribunal switched the financial penalty of 7.000 EUR for contempt of the court with a seven-day prison sentence and issued a warrant for her arrest.
Hartmann previously ignored two orders by the court to pay the financial penalty within the prescribed period of time.
The Appeal Council of The Tribunal then delivered the arrest warrant to the authorities in France, who rejected to enforce it, explaining it with the fact that they are obliged to extradite to the international court only those accused of war crimes, but not of contempt of the court.
Ever since, the representatives of The Tribunal rejected giving any comments on Hartmann, who often stayed in Croatia and BiH and criticized the work of The Tribunal in the media across the region.
In 2009, The Tribunal declared Hartmann guilty of contempt of the court for making two confidential decisions of the court in the process against Slobodan Milošević public.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba/ photo vecernji.hr)
