Case No.: IT-98-34-T

BEFORE TRIAL CHAMBER I SECTION A

Before:
Judge Liu Daqun, Presiding
Judge Maureen Harding Clark
Judge Fatoumata Diarra

Registrar:
Mr. Hans Holthuis

Decision of:
4 October 2002

PROSECUTOR
v.
MLADEN NALETILIC aka "TUTA"
and
VINKO MARTINOVIC aka "STELA"

___________________________________________________________

DECISION ON THE ADMISSION OF EXHIBITS TENDERED THROUGH WITNESS MLADEN ANCIC

___________________________________________________________

The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Kenneth Scott

Counsel for the Accused:

Mr. Kresimir Krsnik, for Mladen Naletilic
Mr. Branko Seric, for Vinko Martinovic

 

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

BEING SEISED OF the following submissions:

  1. "Prosecutor’s Cross-examination Exhibits Concerning Witness Mladen Ancic", filed on 25 September 2002;
  2. "Accused Naletilic’s Submission Concerning Exhibits Tendered Through Witness Mladen Ancic", filed on 26 September 2002;
  3. "Prosecutor’s Response to Defence Objections to Cross-examination Exhibits Concerning Davor Marijan and Mladen Ancic", filed on 1 October 2002;

NOTING that the Prosecution put forward the list of the exhibits submitted through the testimony of Mladen Ancic that it seeks to have admitted; that the Naletilic Defence filed its objections to the said exhibits, and the Prosecution filed its reply to those objections;

CONSIDERING that in principle, exhibits should be submitted through a witness;

CONSIDERING that, pursuant to Rule 89 (C) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence ("the Rules"), "[a] Chamber may admit any relevant evidence which it deems to have probative value";

CONSIDERING that the Appeals Chamber has held that "[t]here is no legal basis … that proof of authenticity is a separate threshold requirement for the admissibility of documentary evidence";1

CONSIDERING, however, that in accordance with the jurisprudence of the Tribunal, it is required that the evidence presents "sufficient indicia of reliability";2

CONSIDERING that the party conducting the direct examination of a witness must lay the source of the document it wishes to submit through the witness, in order for that document to meet the required degree of reliability;

CONSIDERING that the party conducting the cross-examination of a witness must lay the background and the source of the documents it wishes to submit through the witness, in order to allow the witness to recognise or reject the document;

CONSIDERING furthermore that the mere admission of a document does not necessarily mean that the document gives an accurate portrayal of the facts;3

RECALLING that the decision to authorise the admission of a document is without prejudice to the value or weight which will be accorded to the document at the final stage of the trial;

CONSIDERING furthermore the Chamber has already found that material provided by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina satisfies the source requirement set out by the Chamber;4

NOTING that exhibit D1/316 was admitted into evidence by an oral decision of the Chamber on 24 September 2002;

NOTING that the admission into evidence of exhibit P960 was denied by an oral decision of the Chamber on 24 September 2002;

NOTING that exhibit P941 was never used in the course of the testimony of Mladen Ancic;

CONSIDERING that the findings of another Chamber on matters of fact before that Chamber are not considered as evidence, but the Trial Chamber will take due regard of the contents of those judgements; that such matters are susceptible to an application under Rule 94 of the Rules of procedure and evidence ("the Rules");

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS,

PURSUANT to Rules 54 and 89 of the Rules,

HEREBY ORDERS, in respect to the exhibits submitted in the course of the testimony of Witness Mladen Ancic, that the following exhibits are admitted:

P131.1; P273.1; P664.2; P830.2; P943; P944; P945; P961; PT-8.1;

DENIES the admission of the following exhibit:

P941; P946;

REMINDS the parties that, unless otherwise ordered, any objection to the list of exhibits submitted by the other party must be filed within seven (7) days of the date of the filing of the said list.

 

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

Dated this fourth of October 2002,
At The Hague,
The Netherlands

_______________
Judge Liu Daqun
Presiding Judge

[Seal of the Tribunal]


1 - Prosecutor v. Delalic et al., "Decision on Application of Defendant Zejnil Delalic for Leave to Appeal against the Decision of the Trial Chamber of 19 January 1998 for the Admissibility of Evidence", Case No. IT-96-21-AR73.2, 4 March 1998, at para. 25.
2 - Ibid., at para. 17; See also, Prosecutor v. Aleksovki, Decision on Prosecutor's Appeal on Admissibility of Evidence, Case No. IT-95-14/1-A, 16 February 1999; Prosecutor v. Kordic and Cerkez, Decision on Appeal Regarding Statement of a Deceased Witness, Case No. IT-95-14/2-A, 21 July 2000; Prosecutor v. Brdanin and Talic, Order on the Standards Governing the Admission of Evidence, Case No. IT-99-36-T, 15 February 2002, at para. 18.
3 - Ibid.
4 - Prosecutor v. Naletilic and Martinovic, Decision on the Admission of Exhibits Tendered through Witnesses NE and NH, Case No. IT-98-34-T, 28 June 2002, at p. 3.