French journalist imprisoned over 2007 book

A former correspondent for the French daily Le Monde, Florence Hartmann, was jailed during the Bosnian War crimes tribunal in The Hague over a book she wrote in 2007, the Independent reported on Saturday.

According to reports, she was dramatically grabbed Thursday at the tribunal's entrance as she tried to get in to hear the landmark verdict against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Hartmann's lawyer Guenael Mettraux told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that his client was being held separate from other detainees, "under suicide watch conditions, meaning with light in her cell 24-hours a day, and that she is being checked on every 15 minutes by the guards."

She was originally "convicted of contempt of court in 2009 for revealing in a book that the tribunal actually withheld crucial documents on the Srebrenica massacre from the International Criminal Court," The Guardian reported. In 2009, Hartmann was initially fined 7,000 euros for contempt for disclosing the aforementioned confidential information in her book "Paix et Chatiment" (Peace and Punishment).

In 2011, after Hartmann had not paid the fine, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) judges sentenced her to seven days in jail. The court asked French authorities to arrest her, which the French Foreign Ministry refused to do.

Hartmann, a former Balkans correspondent for Le Monde, was grabbed by blue-shirted United Nations guards in front of the ICTY's entrance, where families of Srebrenica massacre victims gathered to hear the verdict against Karadzic. She also served as the former prosecutorial spokeswoman for the Yugoslav war crimes court.

Mettraux said Saturday he has also asked "for her early release, a course of action even extended to war criminals convicted by the court, who are released after serving two-thirds of their sentence … she should be entitled to the same." He added that he did not expect any reaction from The Hague-based U.N. tribunal, set up in 1993 to try those accused of atrocities during the 1990s Balkan wars, as it was closed for the Easter weekend public holidays. "We expect to know more on Tuesday," he said. The ICTY could not immediately be reached for comment.