VZCZCXRO4083
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHVB #0943 2201301
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 081301Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ZAGREB
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6492
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000943 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR DICARLO; EUR/SCE - HOH, DAVIS; 
S/WCI WILLIAMSON, BERG; L/EUR JOHNSON; INR MORIN 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO NSC BRAUN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/08/2016 
TAGS: PGOV KAWC KHJUS HR WAR CRIMES
SUBJECT: MARGETIC - CROATIANS ARREST JOURNALIST AT ICTY 
REQUEST 
 
Classified By: Pol Officer Tom Selinger for reasons 1.4(b) &(d) 
 
 ¶1. (U) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: Croatian authorities arrested 
journalist Domagoj Margetic on August 4 for contempt of court 
at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after he published on his U.S.-based 
website a list of 102 protected witnesses from the trial of 
Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic.  Margetic will be 
detained for up to two months pending acceptance of a 
transfer order from The Hague.  U.S. authorities reportedly 
shut down his website after receiving an ICTY court order. 
 
¶2. (U) Margetic, who is more anti-Hague activist than 
journalist, has repeatedly defied Tribunal orders, claiming 
the court has no jurisdiction over him.  He was among the 
four Croatian journalists indicted for contempt by the ICTY 
in 2005 for publishing the protected testimony of President 
Stjepan Mesic from the Blaskic trial, though the ICTY later 
"declassified" Mesic's testimony and dropped charges against 
Margetic.  END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
ICTY: MARGETIC HAS RECKLESSLY ENDANGERED WITNESSES 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶3. (C) ICTY Head of Mission in Croatia Thomas Osorio told 
PolOff that Margetic will be indicted in The Hague within 
seven days of his arrival for contempt of court involving the 
reckless endangerment of the lives of protected witnesses. 
The Tribunal is extremely serious about stopping Margetic, 
according to Osorio, as they will now be now forced to 
relocate a number of protected witnesses, many of whom are 
villagers who took great risks to testify in The Hague. 
 
¶4. (C) While NGOs such as the Croatian Helsinki Committee 
opposed the ICTY's previous indictment of Margetic based on 
freedom of the press, Osorio said the Tribunal is receiving 
overwhelming support from the NGO community following this 
recent arrest.  Unlike the Mesic testimony, Osorio noted, 
which involved a current head of state, there is no 
overwhelming public interest in revealing the identities of 
these protected witnesses, who are primarily ordinary 
citizens. 
 
¶5. (C) To further aggravate the charges, Osorio added, 
Margetic makes a profit from his website through banner 
advertisements.  This means the court could see his posting 
of a list of protected witnesses, which generated thousands 
of visits to his site, as an attempt at personal gain. 
According to Osorio, prosecutors in The Hague will seek both 
a fine and a prison sentence for Margetic. 
 
HISTORY OF ANTI-ICTY ACTIVITIES 
------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Margetic also made headlines earlier this year when he 
attempted to distribute CDs containing a recording of Mesic's 
testimony, which was still protected at the time.  He was 
arrested at the Zagreb headquarters of the war veterans NGO 
HVIDRA, provoking a police incident and de-railing 
Embassy-supported efforts to open a dialogue between ICTY 
outreach personnel and HVIDRA members. 
DELAWIE