The Hague
September 19, 2008
Prosecutor Alain Werner re-examined witness Alex Bao. Werner went into detail about the money Bao received from the OTP and divided it into categories. He took the witness back to the transcript of yesterday’s testimoney regarding the week Bao spent in Freetown after July 7, 2005 before returning to Kenema Town. He established that the person known to the witness as Kamoh Kanneh had “Kamoh” as a nickname or title, Kamoh in Krio meaning initiator. Werner confirmed that the witness met Issa Sesay on several occasions in Kenema Town, twice for a real meeting, the other occasions being casual meetings on the road.
When the re-examination concluded, Justice Sebutinde brought out that the family name of this witness should be spelt as “Bao” and not as “Gbao” as is shown in the transcript. It will be redacted.
The Prosecution tendered four documents already marked for identification to be accepted as exhibits:
MFI-1: Transcript in the case of the Prosecutor vs Brima et al, several pages;
MFI-2: Transcript in the case of the Prosecutor vs Sesay et al, several pages;
MFI-3: a non-certified copy of the diary;
MFI-4: a map of Kenema District;
Concerning MFI-3 Defense Counsel Morris Anyah objected that an uncertified copy cannot be admitted into evidence as the original had not been shown during the testimony of this witness.
Lead Prosecutor Brenda Hollis stated that the original diary has been presented through another witness in the RUF trial as P28. During the AFRC trial a certified copy was admitted into evidence as P24 through this witness. The original is available to the Defense for inspection to compare the contents of the original with the contents of this non-certified copy.
Anyah stated that the Defense not only wishes to compare the contents but also would require a forensic examination of the document for traces of fire to establish if the diary is genuine.
After having conferred the judges admitted into evidence all four documents as P173 – P176 persuant to Article 192bis.
The Defense wished to admit into evidence a 5 page document marked for identification as MFI-5, interview notes from the OTP and this witness dated November 25, 2004. The Prosecution objected, saying that so far in this Court it had not been the practise to submit interview notes as exhibits into evidence because they are already on record. After conferring, the judges admitted this document into evidence as exhibit D60.
Furthermore the document Defense Counsel Terry Munyard had used during his cross-examination of prosecution witness TF1-189 yesterday, but had not available for this Court in sufficient quantity, being extracts of records and an adoption of statement, both dated February 18, 2003 were, in spite of objections by the Prosecution, admitted into evidence as exhibit D61.
Presiding Judge Teresa Doherty thanked the witness for giving his testimony, wished him a safe journey back home and dismissed the witness.
At 1.15 p.m. Court was adjourned until Monday 9.30 a.m. when a new witness will take the stand.