Case: IT-00-39-PT

TRIAL CHAMBER I

Before:
Judge Alphons Orie, Presiding
Judge Amin El Mahdi
Judge Liu Daqun

Registrar:
Mr Hans Holthuis

Decision of:
13 May 2003

PROSECUTOR
v.
MOMCILO KRAJISNIK

__________________________________________

DECISION ON PROSECUTION’S MOTION TO ADD WITNESS

__________________________________________

Office of the Prosecutor:

Mark Harmon
Alan Tieger

Counsel for the Defence:

Goran Neskovic

I. Introduction

TRIAL CHAMBER I ("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 SEIZED of a motion filed by the Office of the Prosecutor (the "Prosecution) seeking leave from the Chamber to add Milan Babic to its list of witnesses (the “Motion”), and submitting it will thereby abide by its disclosure obligations pursuant to Rule 66(A)(ii) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (the "Rules");

CONSIDERING that leave from the Chamber is indeed necessary for the Prosecution to add a witness to its list according to the Decisions of Trial Chamber III of 18 June 20021 and 12 July 2002;2

CONSIDERING that the Defence has not filed any response to this Motion;

NOTING that, in support of the Motion, the Prosecution submits allegations on Milan Babic’s background as a Croatian Serb political leader, as well as on the fact that he was named as a co-participant in the joint criminal enterprise set out in the Milosevic Indictment;3

NOTING also that the Prosecution has provided the supporting information according to Rule 65ter(E)(ii) of the Rules, items (a), (b), (c), (e), and (f);

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT, in particular, that the Prosecution, in the Motion, expected the time required for Milan Babic’s testimony to be approximately eight hours;

NOTING however that the Prosecution has indicated, in a recent Revised List of Witnesses, the time required for Milan Babic’s testimony to be approximately twenty-five hours;

CONSIDERING that the testimony of Milan Babic is of prima facie relevance with respect to the Indictment in the instant case;

RECALLING the Chamber’s Decision on Prosecution Motions for Judicial Notice of Adjudicated Facts and for Admission of Written Statements of Witnesses Pursuant to Rule 92bis, of 28 February 2003,4 in which the Chamber, inter alia, ordered the Prosecution to submit a list of witnesses (maximum 101) to be called viva voce at trial;

NOTING that, at the present state, adding a new witness would not exceed such limit;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT, however, the large number of prospective witnesses and the expected duration of the trial;

FINDING that adding to the initial list witnesses, whose testimony would take a far above the average amount of hours, would call for the reduction of hours spent on the examination of other witnesses in order not to increase in the duration of the proceedings and thereby, inter alia, endanger the right of the Accused to be tried in an expeditious manner;

CONSIDERING that it will be necessary to balance the hours necessary for Milan Babic to testify with the subtraction of hours estimated for the examination of other witnesses;

Therefore, for the foregoing reasons,

Pursuant to Rules 54 and 65ter of the Rules

The Chamber hereby

ALLOWS the Prosecution’s Motion to add Milan Babic to its witnesses’ list;

 

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

Dated this thirteenth day of May 2003,
At The Hague,
The Netherlands.

______________________
Judge Alphons Orie
Presiding Judge

[Seal of the Tribunal]


1. Decision on Defence Motion to Exclude Evidence and Limit Scope of Trial, 18 June 2002, at 3.
2. Decision on Prosecution’s Application for Certification under Rule 73(B), 12 July 2002, at 4.
3. See paras 7 and 18 of the Croatian part of the Indictment in the case Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, IT-02-54.
4. Decision on Prosecution Motions for Judicial Notice of Adjudicated Facts and for Admission of Written Statements of Witnesses Pursuant to Rule 92bis, at 10.