Monday, 25 January 2010- The Defence recalls two participating victims before opening its case
The morning hearing is suspended. The Defence announces that last night they received new information that needs to be analysed in detail before the examination of the third participating victim can continue. The Chamber grants the Defence their request and decides to adjourn for a couple of hours. At mid morning an ex-parte hearing is conducted in closed session.
Once the testimony of the victims is complete, the Defence team will begin to call its own witnesses - thirty in all. Since the trial began on 26 January 2009, the Defence lawyers have had the opportunity to cross-examine the Prosecutor's witnesses. It is now their turn to try and prove that their client is innocent. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him: enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 years into his armed group and using them "to participate actively" in armed conflict.
The witnesses will be faced with a set of exceptional procedures. Normally, when a witness arrives in The Hague, he or she is not permitted to have any further discussions about their testimony with either party - except to have a short meet and greet with them and the Victims and Witnesses Unit (VWU). In this case however, the Prosecution has requested meetings with certain Defence witnesses in order to clarify areas of their evidence. These meetings will be held in The Hague when the witnesses come to testify, but only if the witnesses agree to meet with the Prosecution after a consultation with the Defence and the VWU. After these meetings, the witnesses will start the formal 'familiarisation' process which is designed to help them understand the court proceedings, and their own roles.
Before the Defence case opens, they make one last request. The team would like to ask additional questions to Witness 225 and Witness 270, the former child soldier allegedly recruited by the UPC and the school teacher in Mahagi, Ituri. It is agreed that both will be re-called as certain issues have "self-evidently arisen" today and need to be clarified. "We will start with 270," says Presiding Judge Fulford.
The public cannot hear a thing. The hearing comes to an end in private session.
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