Mr. Kenneth Scott

Mr. Kresimir Krsnik, for Mladen NALETILIC
Mr. Branko Seric, for Vinko MARTINOVIC

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 (hereafter "Tribunal"):

BEING SEISED of the "Prosecutor’s Motion to Take Additional Depositions for Use at Trial (Rule 71)" dated 11 April 2001 (hereafter "Motion");

RECALLING that, pursuant to a decision dated 10 November 2000, Trial Chamber I ordered that depositions could be taken of 23 named Prosecution witnesses for use at trial;

NOTING that, pursuant to the Motion, the Prosecutor seeks an order for eleven additional witnesses, who are named in Confidential Annex A to the Motion, to give evidence by way of deposition;

NOTING the Prosecutor’s argument that the witnesses are suitable for depositions because one of the eleven witnesses proposed for deposition will not give any evidence directly implicating either of the accused in the crimes charged and the remaining ten witnesses will give evidence of a repetitive nature;

NOTING that the Prosecutor has proposed depositions for the eleven additional witnesses as a measure to expedite the proceedings;

CONSIDERING that the list of witnesses provided by the Prosecutor pursuant to Rule 65 ter (E) (iv) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Tribunal (hereafter "Rules") in October 2000 (hereafter "Witness List") indicates that the Prosecutor is contemplating calling a total of over 100 witnesses;

EMPHASISING that the objective of expediting the proceedings will be frustrated if the Prosecutor is permitted to use the deposition procedure for witnesses that should be removed from the Witness List entirely;

CONSIDERING that each aspect of the Indictment to be addressed by the additional witnesses proposed for deposition is covered by multiple other witnesses on the Prosecutor’s Witness List, as set out in the attached Confidential Annex I;

EMPHASISING that, at present, the number of witnesses the Prosecutor proposes to call in order to address the majority of the sections in the Indictment appears excessive;

EMPHASISING further that the new Rule 73 bis (C) of the Rules permits the Trial Chamber, after having heard the Prosecutor, to set the number of witnesses the Prosecutor may call at trial;

HEREBY ORDERS the Prosecutor to provide the Trial Chamber with reasons as to why the evidence of each of the eleven additional witnesses proposed for deposition is necessary despite the multiple other witnesses testifying to similar facts, and to explain why these witnesses should not be removed from the Witness List entirely, or put on an alternative, or substitute witness list.

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

Done this 4th day of May 2001,
At The Hague,
The Netherlands.

_________________
Patricia M. Wald
Pre-Trial Judge, Trial Chamber I