Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 15852

1 Wednesday, 6 July 2005

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 --- Upon commencing at 9.11 a.m.

5 JUDGE ORIE: Good morning to everyone.

6 Madam Registrar, would you please call the case.

7 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honours. This is case number

8 IT-00-39-T, the Prosecutor versus Momcilo Krajisnik.

9 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Madam Registrar.

10 Before we continue, I'd first like to deliver a decision, that

11 is, a decision of the Chamber giving the reasons for its decision

12 delivered yesterday on closed session for Witness 666.

13 In a decision of the 1st of September, 2004, the witness was

14 already granted protective measures in the form of a pseudonym, image and

15 voice distortion, and private session for those portions of his testimony

16 reasonably likely to reveal his identity. During yesterday's session, the

17 witness stated that "the maximum level of protection" was in fact what he

18 had in mind when communicating his security concerns to the Prosecution.

19 He also expressed additional concerns with regards to the safety of family

20 members and argued that the protective measures already granted would not

21 be sufficient.

22 The Chamber will not reiterate the reasons for granting

23 protective measures for Witness 666, as they were set out in the decision

24 of the 1st of September last year. The present decision only concerns the

25 degree of protection, not the need for protective measures. The Chamber

Page 15853

1 must be satisfied that protective measures less restrictive than those

2 sought would not address the security concerns of the witness. The

3 Chamber has considered the arguments of the parties, the submissions by

4 the witness, and its own decision of the 1st of September, 2004. The

5 Chamber finds that given the position of the witness, the nature of his

6 testimony, as clarified during yesterday's session, would, of itself,

7 allow him to be identified. Moreover, having now read the transcripts of

8 the interviews the Prosecution has held with the witness, the Chamber

9 finds it most likely that under the previous protective measures regime,

10 most, if not all of the witness's testimony, would have required private

11 session. The Chamber considers that the risk that the witness would be

12 identified through small portions of his testimony given in open session

13 is not outweighed by the advantages of these small portions of testimony

14 being heard in open session. The Chamber considers therefore that there

15 is a need for him to testify in closed session.

16 This concludes the Chamber's reasoning for the decision on closed

17 session for Witness 666.

18 I further have another procedural matter I'd like to briefly

19 raise. We did lose some time yesterday. The Chamber has prepared

20 arrangements for a prolonged hearing next Friday. That would mean that we

21 would also sit part or whole of the afternoon. The Chamber wants to

22 announce that and to hear if any of the parties would find major problems,

23 not in general terms - specific terms - for next Friday to be present at

24 that hearing.

25 MR. STEWART: Your Honour means Friday this week?

Page 15854

1 JUDGE ORIE: This week, yes.

2 MR. STEWART: May I ask --

3 JUDGE ORIE: Yes, "next Friday," I know that it's always a

4 problem. Yes.

5 MR. STEWART: Sorry. I just wanted to be clear, Your Honour. I

6 don't think it matters particularly which --

7 JUDGE ORIE: You were first.

8 MR. STEWART: I was first up.

9 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.

10 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, just to say that no, it doesn't -- it

11 doesn't present problems to the Defence in this sense that actually, Your

12 Honour, on our side we feel reasonably confident that this session

13 actually won't be necessary.

14 JUDGE ORIE: Okay. Fine.

15 MR. STEWART: It would require a little bit of reorganisation on

16 our side if it did, Your Honour, and we would cope with that, but that's

17 our position at the moment.

18 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you very much, Mr. Stewart.

19 Mr. Tieger.

20 MR. TIEGER: We were consulted in advance, as was Mr. Stewart.

21 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.

22 MR. TIEGER: And we appreciate the Court's efforts. That

23 scheduling is fine.

24 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.

25 Then are there any other procedural matters to be raised at this

Page 15855

1 moment before we continue?

2 MR. STEWART: Sorry, yes, Your Honour. Just a very small point.

3 Your Honour, we've got witnesses 31 and 555 coming up, is it? I

4 can't remember exactly the status on protective measures. I know at least

5 one of them is subject to protective measures. I'll just say the numbers.

6 Witness 31 tomorrow and Witness 555 due on Friday. Your Honour, the

7 Defence has in mind that unless there is some problem or difficulty, that

8 both those witnesses would be taken by Mr. Josse. And I hope that the

9 Trial Chamber is content with that.

10 [Trial Chamber confers]

11 JUDGE ORIE: Although the Chamber would prefer to be in a

12 position where it wouldn't need any decision any more to have Mr. Josse

13 take the witness, the Chamber accepts that and will further inquire into

14 the development of talks between the Registry and the Defence and

15 Mr. Krajisnik.

16 MR. STEWART: Yes, Your Honour. That's a bigger topic which I

17 won't address this morning.

18 JUDGE ORIE: No. No.

19 MR. STEWART: But I --

20 JUDGE ORIE: But I just want to emphasise that.

21 MR. STEWART: Indeed, Your Honour. And I have some further

22 inquiries and information to explore there about where exactly we are.

23 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.

24 MR. STEWART: But that's another topic, Your Honour.

25 JUDGE ORIE: Yes, I do I understand. But I would like to make

Page 15856

1 one observation in this respect. For tomorrow, a videolink witness is

2 scheduled; I think it's Witness 31. That is difficult to move, so

3 therefore whatever happens we'll start anyhow with the videolink witness

4 tomorrow, even if we're not finished with the witness of today, because we

5 can't change that easily the videolink. This is just to inform the

6 parties. Of course, we do not know to what extent it's necessary, but for

7 scheduling purposes you should be aware of that.

8 MR. STEWART: Well, Your Honour, that was going to be my -- my

9 next request and happily Your Honours have completely anticipated and that

10 fits in entirely with what I was going to request.

11 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.

12 MR. STEWART: So I have nothing more to say now, Your Honour.

13 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. No further matters to be raised?

14 MR. MARGETTS: No. We're ready to call the next witness, Your

15 Honour.

16 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then we turn into closed session.

17 [Closed session]

18 (redacted)

19 (redacted)

20 (redacted)

21 (redacted)

22 (redacted)

23 (redacted)

24 (redacted)

25 (redacted)

Page 15857

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11 Pages 15857-15947 redacted. Closed session.

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Page 15948

1 (redacted)

2 (redacted)

3 (redacted)

4 (redacted)

5 (redacted)

6 (redacted)

7 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 2.05 p.m.,

8 to be reconvened on Thursday, the 7th day of

9 July, 2005, at 9.00 a.m.

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25