Case No.: IT-02-54-T

IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Richard May, Presiding
Judge Patrick Robinson
Judge O-Gon Kwon

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis

Decision of:
17 December 2003

PROSECUTOR

v.

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

_________________________________________________

DECISION ON PROSECUTION’S MOTION TO ADD WITNESS C-1249 TO THE WITNESS LIST AND FOR TRIAL RELATED PROTECTIVE MEASURES

__________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor

Ms. Carla Del Ponte
Mr. Geoffrey Nice
Mr. Dermot Groome

The Accused

Mr. Slobodan Milosevic

Amici Curiae

Mr. Steven Kay, QC
Mr. Branislav Tapuskovic
Prof. Timothy L.H. McCormack

 

THIS TRIAL CHAMBER of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 ("the International Tribunal"),

BEING SEISED of a confidential "Motion to Add Witness C-1249 to the Witness List and for Trial Related Protective Measures for Witness C-1249", filed on 1 December 2003 ("Motion"), in which the Prosecution seeks to add this witness to the Prosecution witness list, with restrictions placed upon the testimony he can give and for trial related protective measures,

CONSIDERING the Trial Chamber’s ruling subsequent to the filing of the Prosecution’s pre-trial material for the Croatia and Bosnia part of these proceedings that it would only allow the admission of additional material by the Prosecution on good cause being shown,1

CONSIDERING that the Trial Chamber previously rejected the application to add this witness to the witness list, stating that the application was hypothetical and therefore inappropriate,2

NOTING that Rule 89 (D) provides for a Chamber to exclude evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the need to ensure a fair trial,

CONSIDERING the Trial Chamber does not accept that the Prosecution has shown good cause such that the witness should be added to the witness list, there being insufficient justification for making the application so late in the trial,

CONSIDERING that, even if the Trial Chamber were to accept the admission of this evidence so late in the Prosecution case, the conditions imposed upon the evidence it is said the witness could give are too restrictive to be permissible,

CONSIDERING that it is not necessary for the Trial Chamber to consider the protective measures sought on behalf of the witness,

PURSUANT TO Rules 54 and 89 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence

HEREBY DENIES THE MOTION.

Done in English and French, the English text being authoritative.

_____________
Richard May
Presiding

Dated this seventeenth day of December 2003
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]


1. "Decision on Prosecution Request for Agreement of Trial Chamber to Amend Schedule of Filings", 18 April 2002, p.3.
2. "Decision on Prosecution’s Fourth Omnibus Motion for Leave to Amend the Witness List and Request for Protective Measures", 21 November 2003.