ZAGREB - A Croatian journalist charged by the UN war crimes tribunal with contempt of court has defied it by publishing the secret testimony of a protected witness on the Internet, reports said on January 12. Domagoj Margetic put out on his personal website what appeared to be testimony by Croatian President Stipe Mesic during the 1997 trial of former Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic, the Jutarnji List newspaper said. The audio recording of the testimony was posted on the website late on Wednesday but early Thursday the site was blocked by police order.
Last year the UN tribunal in The Hague charged Margetic, a former journalist with the rightwing Hrvatsko Slovo newspaper, four other Croatian journalists and the country's former intelligence chief with contempt of court for revealing the identity of a witness during the trial. The witness was Mesic, according to local media. "I reject the UN court ruling ... and I will continue to make public Mesic's testimony," Margetic had said accusing the president of "betraying Croatia" by his statements in front of the court.
