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" " " Brcko, Prosecutor v. Jelisic, Decision on the Motion Concerning Identification Evidence, IT-95-10 (ICTY TC, Dec. 18, 1998)

IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER

Before:
Judge Claude Jorda, Presiding
Judge Fouad Riad
Judge Almiro Simões Rodrigues

Registrar:
Mr. Jean-Jacques Heintz, Deputy Registrar

Order of:
18 December 1998

THE PROSECUTOR

v.

GORAN JELISIC


DECISION ON THE MOTION CONCERNING IDENTIFICATION EVIDENCE


The Office of the Prosecutor:

Mr. Geoffrey Nice
Mr. Vladimir Tochilovsky

Defence Counsel:

Mr. Veselin Londrovic
Mr. Michael Greaves
Mr. Jovan Babic

 

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,

NOTING the Defence Motion concerning identification evidence filed on 2 December 1998 (hereinafter "the Motion"),

PURSUANT to Rule 89 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (hereinafter "the Rules"),

NOTING the Judgment of 7 May 1997 rendered by Trial Chamber II in the case "The Prosecutor v. Dusko Tadic" (hereinafter "the Tadic Judgment"),

CONSIDERING that, in its Motion, the Defence, relying on the hearing of 30 November 1998 during which the Prosecution asked a witness whether he recognised Goran Jelisic, requests that the Trial Chamber not accept that method of identifying the accused and bases such request on the right of the accused to a fair trial and on the provisions of Rule 89 of the Rules,

CONSIDERING that, in the case in point and in respect of the hearing of 30 November 1998, the request is not justified since the witness did not specifically recognise the accused,

CONSIDERING, however, that there is cause to review the Motion in a more general manner,

CONSIDERING that, according to Sub-rule 89(C) of the Rules, "a Chamber may admit any relevant evidence which it deems to have probative value",

CONSIDERING that identification of an accused by a witness, irrespective of the circumstances of such identification, is, by definition, relevant and has probative value,

CONSIDERING, however, that the Trial Chamber will evaluate the weight to be granted to all the material on which its conviction will be based only at the conclusion of the trial after the Prosecution and the Defence have presented their case,

CONSIDERING that the Trial Chamber deems, as expressed in the Tadic Judgement, that it is appropriate to "place little weight upon mere dock identification" and that it must "assess the credibility of each witness independently of that identification",

FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS,

DENIES the Motion.

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

 

(signed)
_________________________
Claude Jorda
Presiding Judge Trial Chamber I

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

(Seal of the Tribunal)

   

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