A U.N. tribunal charged a Croat journalist with contempt of court on Monday for revealing the names of two witnesses who testified in a war crimes case.
Freelance journalist Domagoj Margetic named the protected witnesses from the trial of General Tihomir Blaskic on his personal Web site in July and August of this year, the tribunal said in a statement.
The U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, set up to investigate wars in the region in the 1990s, sentenced Blaskic to 45 years in prison in 2000 for crimes against humanity, war crimes and other charges. Blaskic had been a Croat militia commander in central Bosnia. Blaskic's sentence was reduced to nine years on appeal in 2004, but U.N. prosecutors have sought to reopen the case on the grounds of new witness testimony.
"Margetic 'undermines confidence in the tribunal's ability to grant effective protective measures'," the tribunal said, quoting from the indictment, adding that such acts interfere with witnesses who "have given, or are about to give evidence".
Margetic was also editor of Croatian weekly Hrvatsko Slovo when it printed excerpts of the testimony of another protected witness and revealed his identity.
The tribunal last month fined a former Croatian newspaper editor 20,000 euros ($25,450) for revealing that Croatian President Stjepan Mesic had testified in the trial of Blaskic.
