Hartmann Ordered to Pay Fine
Former spokeswoman for prosecution was convicted of contempt for revealing confidential court information.
Hartmann Ordered to Pay Fine
Former spokeswoman for prosecution was convicted of contempt for revealing confidential court information.
The ex-spokeswoman for The Hague tribunal’s chief prosecutor has been ordered to pay the 7,000 euro fine imposed as part of her contempt conviction.
Florence Hartmann, who worked at the tribunal from 2000 to 2006, was convicted of two counts of contempt in 2009 for revealing confidential information pertaining to two appeals chamber decisions issued in 2005 and 2006 during the trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
She disclosed the confidential information in her 2007 book, Peace and Punishment, and in an article, “Vital Genocide Documents Concealed”, which was published on the Bosnian Institute website on January 21, 2008.
Judges sentenced her to a fine of 7,000 euro, which was upheld on appeal earlier this year.
Judge Patrick Robinson, the tribunal’s president, this week ordered Hartmann to pay the fine, which he wrote was supposed to have been delivered in two installments of 3,500 euro on August 19 and September 19 of this year.
The judge stated that Hartmann sent him a letter on August 16, and again on September 19, stating that she did have the money to pay the fine, but her “supporters” had deposited the funds into a French bank account, the details of which she provided.
The registry, however, has a specific process that must be followed when it comes to the payment of fines. It reported that as of September 26, the funds had yet to be received.
Judge Robinson thus ordered Hartmann to pay the fine “in the exact manner prescribed by the registry” no later than October 25.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
