New Unclear Issues regarding Recordings from Tribunal

The reason for its postponement was the fact that it was not clear what protection measures the witnesses were granted during the trials before the Hague Tribunal.

The Trial Chamber decided to request the Tribunal to specify what protection measures were granted to the three witnesses, whose examination was planned for today, as per a request by the Defence. The Chamber wants to determine whether the testimonies took place at an open or closed session.

Prosecutor Mirko Lecic expressed suspicion on whether it was allowed to reproduce the recordings of those testimonies or not. Defence attorney Slavisa Prodanovic did not have information on whether the witnesses testified at an open session or not, saying that the Tribunal did not normally make transcripts of testimonies given at closed hearings.

In October last year the Defence requested the Tribunal to provide it with audio recordings of testimonies by these protected witnesses. The recordings arrived nearly a year later.

The CD, which was sent by the Tribunal, contained a large number of recordings, so the trial had to be postponed at the beginning of November. After that the requested parts of testimonies were identified with the help from the Criminal Defence Department.

Prosecutor Lecic mentioned that all the testimonies should be heard, not only the parts that suited the Defence.
Defence attorney Prodanovic said that the Tribunal provided testimonies by only three out of 15 requested witnesses.

Krsmanovic, a former member of the Second Podrinje Light Infantry Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with having participated in murders, rape, torture and other inhumane acts against the Bosniak civilians in Visegrad in 1992.

The trial has been postponed to February 3.