IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before: Judge Almiro Simes Rodrigues

Registrar: Mr. Jean-Jacques Heintz, Deputy Registrar

Decision of: 18 December 1998

THE PROSECUTOR

v.

GORAN JELISIC
RANKO CESIC


ORDER FOR PROTECTIVE MEASURES


The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Geoffrey Nice
Mr. Vladimir Tochilovsky

Defence Counsel:

Mr. Veselin Londrovic

 

Trial Chamber I 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 (hereinafter "the Tribunal"),

NOTING the Prosecutor’s Motion for Protective Measures for Witnesses dated 30 November 1998 filed confidentially (hereinafter "the Motion"),

NOTING the Prosecutor’s confidential list submitted pursuant to Sub-rule 73 bis (B)(iv) dated 19 November 1998 and the Prosecution witness list for the trial on count 1 dated 30 November 1998,

PURSUANT to Articles 20. 21 and 22 of the Statute of the Tribunal, Rule 75 and Sub-rule 81(D) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence,

CONSIDERING that, in her Motion, the Prosecutor requests that the Trial Chamber grant protective measures for five Prosecution witnesses because these witnesses, who are all Muslim, would fear retaliation against close family members and themselves after they had given testimony at the Tribunal,

CONSIDERING that, more specifically, the Prosecutor requests the following measures: the use of a screen; image altering devices; redaction of records and transcripts of the sessions being released to the public and to the media; use of pseudonyms (witnesses A, B, C, D, or E); prohibition against photographing, video-recording or sketching the witnesses but maintains that the testimony will be public,

CONSIDERING, however, that the witnesses indicated in the Motion, insofar as the Trial Chamber in a position to judge, have expressed legitimate fears based on circumstances which might give rise to such fears,

CONSIDERING that the Trial Chamber notes that similar measures have been applied satisfactorily in other cases pending before the Tribunal,

CONSIDERING that the Trial Chamber is of the opinion that the protective measures requested do not infringe upon the rights of the accused,

CONSIDERING that the Trial Chamber deems that, in view of the rules applicable to such cases and the general protective measures indicated below, it is not necessary to take specific measures for redaction,

CONSIDERING that, pursuant to Article 20 of the Statute, the hearings, in principle are public,

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS,

GRANTS the Motion and ORDERS that during the public hearings and in the transcripts thereof the witnesses whose names are mentioned in the confidential motion shall be indicated by their pseudonym A, B, C, D or E; that a screen may be used and that their faces appearing on the screen will be altered during the public hearing,

ORDERS that the Prosecutor, the accused, his counsel and his representatives shall not disclose to the public or to the media the identity of the witnesses or their whereabouts or any information which might make it possible to identify them or their testimony, subject to the requirements absolutely necessary for the preparation of the defence; that, when these witnesses appear in the Tribunal, no photographs, recordings or sketches of them shall be made;

ORDERS that the Prosecutor and the Defence shall keep a record indicating the name, address and occupation of each person receiving a copy of the statement or testimony of a witness, as well as the date such copy was made, and that the record shall be submitted to the Trial Chamber whenever it so requests,

ORDERS that the Prosecutor and the Defence shall instruct those persons who have received from them copies of the statements or testimony not to reproduce them, under penalty of sanction for contempt of the Tribunal, and that they shall return them as soon as they are no longer using them; and orders that the Prosecutor and the Defence shall verify compliance with such instruction.

 

Done this eighteenth day of December 1998
At The Hague,
The Netherlands

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

(signed)
_______________________
Claude Jorda
Presiding Judge, Trial Chamber I

(Seal of the Tribunal)