Case No. IT-02-60-T

IN TRIAL CHAMBER I, SECTION A

Before:
Judge Liu Daqun, Presiding
Judge Volodymyr Vassylenko
Judge Carmen Maria Argibay

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis
Decision of:
04 February 2004

PROSECUTOR

v.

VIDOJE BLAGOJEVIC
DRAGAN JOKIC

__________________________________

DECISION ON PROSECUTION’S MOTION TO AMEND WITNESS LIST

__________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Peter McCloskey

Counsel for the Accused:

Mr. Michael Karnavas and Ms. Suzana Tomanovic for Vidoje Blagojevic
Mr. Miodrag Stojanovic and Mr. Branko Lukić for Dragan Jokic

 

TRIAL CHAMBER I, SECTION A, ("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 ("Tribunal"),

BEING SEISED of the "Prosecution’s Motion to Amend the Witness List," filed confidentially by the Office of the Prosecutor ("Prosecution") on 30 January 2004 ("Motion"),

NOTING that the Motion proposes the amendment of the witness list by adding two additional witnesses, identified as being capable of providing valuable evidence in this case,

CONSIDERING that Rule 73 bis (D) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence ("Rules") provides that "after commencement of the trial, the Prosecutor may, if he or she considers it to be in the interests of justice, file a motion to reinstate the list of witnesses or to vary the decision as to which witnesses are to be called",

CONSIDERING that the spirit of Rule 73 bis (D) is to prevent the Prosecution from calling witnesses without sufficient notice but also to ensure that the search for the truth is guaranteed by allowing the Prosecution to request its list of witnesses to be reinstated or varied and allowing the Trial Chamber to grant such request if it deems it to be in the interests of justice,

CONSIDERING that it is in the interests of justice to permit the Prosecution to amend its witness list in this instance, given the potential valuable nature of the evidence to be presented and that this would not cause undue hardship to the Defence,

PURSUANT TO Rules 54 and 73bis of the Rules,

HEREBY GRANTS the Motion.

 

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

____________
Judge Liu Daqun
Presiding

Dated this fourth day of February 2004,
At The Hague
The Netherlands

[Seal of the Tribunal]