A former spokeswoman at the war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague has been charged with two counts of contempt for disclosing confidential information since leaving the court.
In a book published a year ago, Florence Hartmann wrote that in 1997 Russia blocked the arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, captured in Belgrade last month after more than a decade on the run and now in The Hague awaiting trial.
In a statement, the tribunal ordered "the prosecution of Florence Hartmann ... for knowingly and wilfully disclosing information in knowing violation of an order of a chamber".
Ms Hartmann, a former spokeswoman for the UN tribunal's prosecutor, was ordered to appear before the court on September 15th.
The allegations says she disclosed "information relating to confidential decisions of the tribunal's Appeals Chamber in the case of Slobodan Milosevic" but does not give details.
Ms Hartmann's book "Peace and Punishment", published in September 2007, details discussions between the leaders of the United States, Britain and France in 1997 when French President Jacques Chirac was persuaded to abandon his demands for the arrest of Karadzic.
Mr Chirac was seeking redress for the capture of two French pilots shot down and held hostage by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995, Hartmann wrote.
Former tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte was told by Chirac that the United States had prevented the arrest of Karadzic in Bosnia, hardening his belief that Washington had a secret deal to let him go free.
Former Nato commander Wesley Clark, however, told Ms del Ponte it was France that made a secret no-arrest deal with Karadzic and his wartime commander Ratko Mladic, to obtain the release of the two French aviators, Hartmann wrote.
She quotes Chirac as telling Ms del Ponte that former Russian President Boris Yeltsin did not want Karadzic to be arrested because he knew too much about former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Ms Hartmann faces one charge of disclosing information in her book and another over an article published in January this year by the Bosnian Institute, a privately-funded organisation that seeks to inform and educate people about the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina.