THE TRIAL CHAMBER

ORDER TO PROSECUTION CONCERNING RENEWED WITNESS LIST

THE TRIAL CHAMBER (“Trial Chamber”) of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (“Special Court”) composed of Hon. Judge Benjamin Mutanga Itoe, Presiding Judge, Hon. Judge Bankole Thompson, and Hon. Judge Pierre Boutet;

NOTING that on the 1st of April 2004, the Trial Chamber issued the Order to the Prosecution to File Disclosure Materials and Other Materials in Preparation for the Commencement of Trial and that this Order required the Prosecution to file a witness list for all the witnesses the Prosecution intended to call at trial;

EMPHASISING that this Order stated that should “the Prosecution seek to add any witnesses to this list after 26 April 2004, it shall be permitted to do so only upon good cause being shown”;

NOTING that the Materials filed Pursuant to Order to the Prosecution to File Disclosure Materials and Other Materials in Preparation for the commencement of Trial of 1 April 2004, filed by the Prosecution on the 26th of April 2004, included a Witness List listing 266 witnesses that it intended to call at trial;

NOTING that in its Updated Compliance Report Filed Pursuant to Undertaking by the Prosecution in PreTrial Conference held 29 April 2004 (RUF) filed on the 11th of May 2004, the Prosecution asserted that six of the witnesses on its Witness List filed on the 26th of April 2004, that is witnesses TF1-106, TF1-146, TF1-189, TF1-274, TF1-103 and TF1-276, were erroneously included and should thus be regarded “as deleted from the list”, thereby reducing the number of witnesses in its Witness List to 260 witnesses;

NOTING that on the 7th of July 2004, the Trial Chamber issued the Order to Prosecution to Produce Witness List and Witness Summaries requiring the Prosecution to file a list of “core” witnesses and a list of “back-up” witnesses;

NOTING that on the 12th of July 2004, the Prosecution filed Materials pursuant to this Order that contained a Modified Witness List identifying its “core” witnesses, that totalled 173 in number;

NOTING that on the same day, the Prosecution filed an application seeking leave to add six witnesses to its Modified Witness List;

NOTING that the Trial Chamber granted the Prosecution’s application in its Decision on Prosecution Request for Leave to Call Additional Witnesses dated the 29th of July 2004, thereby bringing the total number of “core” Prosecution witnesses up to 179;

NOTING that on the 23rd of November 2004, the Prosecution filed a Prosecution Renewed Witness List in which it has submitted a Renewed Witness List reducing its number of “core” witnesses to 102 witnesses and also a “back-up list” of 170 witnesses that it does not currently intend to call at trial;

CONSIDERING the determination of the Trial Chamber to ensure that the trial is fair and expeditious and that the proceedings before the Special Court are conducted in accordance with the Statute and Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Special Court (“Rules”), with full respect for the rights of the accused and due regard for the protection of victims and witnesses;

CONSIDERING that this Chamber has repeatedly encouraged the Prosecution to attempt to reduce the number of Prosecution witnesses and that it would like to recognise of the Prosecution’s efforts in substantially reducing the total number of “core” Prosecution witnesses;

REAFFIRMS that the Prosecution is required to seek leave and demonstrate good cause in order to add witnesses to its witness list;

PURSUANT TO Rules 54 and 66(A)(ii) of the Rules;

HEREBY ORDERS that:

1. The Prosecution seek leave of this Chamber to add witnesses TF1-189 and TF1-274 to their Renewed Witness List after having indicated on the 11th of May 2004 that these witnesses should be considered as deleted from their Witness List;
2. The Prosecution seek leave of this Chamber to add witnesses TF1-126 and TF1-210 added to their Renewed Witness List after having not identified these witnesses as “core” witnesses in the Modified Witness List dated the 12th of July 2004;
3. The Prosecution seek leave of this Chamber to add witnesses TF1-106, TF1-146, TF1-103 and TF1-276 added to the “back-up list” of witnesses after having indicated on the 11th of May 2004 that these witnesses should be considered as deleted from their Witness List; and
4. The Prosecution seek leave of this Chamber to add witnesses TF1-013, TF1-155 and TF1-302 added to the “back-up list” of witnesses after having indicated during the July 2004 and October 2004 trial sessions that these witnesses were to be withdrawn from the Witness List.