Monday, 22 March 2010 - Lubanga Chronicle #71 Truth or Lies? The Questions Continue
Prosecution Witness 15 continues giving evidence. Throughout his testimony, the witness has claimed that an intermediary who cooperated with the Office of the Prosecutor encouraged him to fabricate lies. Witness 15 gave a similar account when he appeared in court for the first time on 16 June 2009. At that time, he said the information he had given to investigators was false. His testimony was suspended and the Chamber ordered a fresh statement to be taken.
During his testimony on Thursday, Prosecution Witness 15 told the court that in 2006 he requested to see a lawyer. He wanted to confess his lies. But according to him, his demands were ignored by the ICC officers. "That was the situation between 2006 and 2009" said the witness. Today, Trial Attorney Nicole Samson wants to challenge the witness´s suggestions. According to the Prosecution, the witness did not utter a word about that request during his new statement taken in June 2009. "I had to provide an exact answer to each question," says the witness to justify the absence of that information. "I requested a lawyer in order to protect myself. The head of the Victims and Witness Unit had a strange attitude. You can check the phone calls [to see] how many times I asked for a lawyer," says the witness to Ms. Samson.
Last week the Lubanga Defence team asked Witness 15 if he knew of other persons that had told lies to the Office of the Prosecutor. The answer was as follows: "I refused to answer this question last year [in June 2009]; I had a worry. I thought I would be put in prison [...Now] if I say the truth it helps all the parties: [yes], I know people. I know children involved." But the Prosecution has other information that seems to contradict the witness´s words. Ms. Samson reads out an excerpt of his interview in June 2009: "I was not aware of other persons that the intermediary recruited for the purpose of providing information to the OTP [...] I am the only person who had contact with the intermediary in these circumstances." The witness confirms his statement. "That is correct. I said the intermediary contacted me on his own. There were just the two of us."
Ms. Samson also argues that during the interview in June 2009, Witness 15 admitted having told the intermediary that he was a child soldier. The Trial Attorney reads out this part of the interview: "The intermediary asked me if I was a child soldier of the UPC. I doubted. First I said no; later I said yes. He did not ask in a forceful way. It was just a question." The Witness confirms his own words. "I have no further questions, Your Honour," says Ms. Samson.
The Lubanga Defence team has one last chance to neutralise the Prosecution´s moves. Mr. Desalliers wants to stress the fact that Witness 15 may have received pressure. "Mr. Witness, you have just said in 2009 somebody said to you that you might be arrested," says Mr. Desalliers. "There was a lawyer who said that it is possible there might be legal proceedings against me. I was frightened and I had to be careful of what I was saying, and I had to camouflage things [...] My lawyer told me I had to remain a Prosecution Witness. That was stupid because I would have to invent another story. We should keep to the truth rather than keep on inventing stories," says the witness. "I have no further questions, Your Honour," says Mr. Desalliers.
Witness 15 concludes his testimony and the eleventh Defence witness is about to commence. Defence Witness 23 has requested protective measures, including the use of a pseudonym and voice and face distortion to avoid possible reprisals in his community. The audience is allowed to know little about him, since a substantial part of his testimony is held in private.
Witness 23 is a former soldier who took part in a demobilisation program. However, he does not indicate in public which armed group he belonged to. He explains to the Court that he and other demobilised fighters asked the UN Development Program for funding for their motorcycle taxi project: "We provided all the information - demobilisation cards, date of demobilisation. Everything was written down. They made photocopies of the cards. I was the team leader; everything which was collected they gave me a copy of it. They gave me a booklet. It was a document of several pages. Everything was written in that document." According to Witness 23, to this day they have not yet received the money the donor agency allocated for the project.
The eleventh Defence witness continues his testimony tomorrow.
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