MANILA: A trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands has rejected the request of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s lawyers to have all pieces of evidence from open sources verified by an expert, as this could slow down the trial proceedings.
The Trial Chamber (TC) III, in a decision dated Sept. 28, denied the defence lawyers’ request for stricter authentication of evidence by amending the “E-Court Protocol,” the court’s electronic system, in the crimes against humanity case against Duterte.
The defence, led by British barrister Peter Haynes, last month asked the chamber to order the prosecution to add an “expert verification field” for the listing of items to be cited as evidence.
‘Needless delay’
This would have required another layer of authentication for pieces of evidence offered by the prosecution that were user-generated or that came from open sources.
But the TC III, in dismissing the defence petition, said the additional requirement may be “unnecessary and could well have the effect of causing a needless delay to the start of the trial.”
The chamber instead agreed with the prosecution’s suggestion that its open-source evidence be accompanied with a URL field to allow parties and participants to the case to access the evidence easily.
This version of the E-Court Protocol amendment was agreed upon by the prosecution, defence and the common legal representatives of the victims.
“Under these circumstances, the chamber is satisfied that it is appropriate to grant the request and decides to amend the E-Court Protocol as requested,” the TC III said in its seven-page decision.
It ordered the Registry, the ICCs’ administrative arm, to implement the prosecution’s proposal for the E-Court Protocol adjustments by Oct. 2, or less than two months before the start of Duterte’s trial. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
