Special Court for Sierra Leone, RUF Trial, Update 72

RUF Trial

Special Court for Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

English

The Prosecution continued to bring their case against the three accused in the RUF trial this week. The question of witness motivation previously raised by defence counsel was taken up again during Monday’s proceedings. The debate also touched on the bench’s evaluation of witness testimony, as Jordash contended that Prosecution witnesses must be assumed to be lying in order to maintain the presumption of innocence. The Bench indicated that this sort of judgment would only be conducted at a later stage and that arguments regarding witness motivation may only be presented during closing arguments. The two insider witnesses on the stand this week testified about the RUF chain of command, the commanders’ use of forced labour and the particular roles of the three accused. Witness TF1-113, who also testified in the AFRC trial, remained on the stand from the previous week and was thoroughly cross-examined by the three defence teams. Witness TF1-108, a key witness in the Prosecution’s case against Gbao, was subsequently led in evidence. The cross-examination of this witness by counsel for the third accused will resume during next week’s proceedings. As these two insider witnesses were submitted to rigorous cross-examinations during the week’s proceedings many of the tensions involved with this form of examination were particularly evident. The Bench intervened on a few occasions when they perceived defence counsel to be in danger of pushing a witness too far. However, other instances of seemingly aggressive or condescending questioning by defence counsel went unnoted by the Trial Chamber.