Fransen Asks Prosecutor to Submit Justifications as Defense Voices Concern over Large Number of Witnesses
Defense lawyers at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon expressed their concerns on Tuesday over the high number of witnesses to testify in next March's trials, requesting data and documents “to understand the grounds on which the court is basing its judgments”.
“We were not informed by the Prosecutor when and why the suspects became part if these investigations,” said one of the suspects' lawyers during a status conference at the Tribunal's headquarter in the Hague.
The lawyers called for withdrawing the accusations against suspects if “no evidence can be used to justify this decision”.
“I believe that the prosecutor has acquired a bad habit from other courts, which is to overwhelm the Defense with hundreds of evidence documents and to withdraw them later,” said Assaad Sabra's lawyer.
Prosecutor Norman Farrell admitted a delay in presenting requested data.
Regarding the number pf witnesses to be called for questioning, Judge Fransen said that although “ interviewing 560 persons will consume a long time, but if you believe that there is a key testimony that needs to be heard, you can ask the judges to take a decision in this matter”.
STL Pre-Trial Judge Fransen set a Dec. 4 date for the prosecutor to submit to him confidential annexes to his Pre-Trial Brief and to respond to the Defense's request to disclose the Brief's article 161.
According to a statement issued by the STL, Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen held the hearing “as part of his duties to ensure that the proceedings are not unduly delayed.”
In its Pre-Trial Brief, the Prosecution said it intends to call 557 witnesses and that there are 13,170 exhibits on the exhibit list.
The total time estimated for the presentation of the Prosecution’s case is 457.5 hours, according to the brief.
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