April start, deadline for SPS witness hearing in The Hague

This year's April 4th is the last date envisioned for the hearing of SPS witnesses in the Specialised Chambers in the case of Hashim Thaci and others, prosecutor Matt Halling has announced.

During the progress conference, Halling said Wednesday that within April 15th he would hand over the latest written motions, including nonverbal motions and corresponding evidence.

“This is the date that is scheduled”, the prosecutor said.

Next week we have two witnesses, we have a witness for March and we will give you updates for other witnesses scheduled for March, once we have this update... Some remaining witnesses have complex problems related to security, preparation, co-operation with third states, however we're doing the impossible, within our reach”, James Pace, prosecutor, said.

The only confirmed witness for the March block is the W04403 witness, the other witnesses we call, we haven't counted it yet, said Pace.

We don't have 50 or 100 witnesses. Only 20 witnesses left, and I told you some will come to the courtroom, some will be accepted according to rule 153, 155, we'll give them the changes within this week and very few witnesses will remain”, Pace said.

Rules 153 and 155 define accepting written statements and transcripts instead of verbal evidence.

“We have estimated there are at least 10 witnesses who remained to be heard in the March block, but there is a lot to prepare for the 10th and if they are not called we should know. By the end of next week, the prosecution should inform us whether there will be more witnesses or not. At least let's know that by the end of this block, let's prepare for one, two or ten witnesses, because it's a very big difference in our staff resources”, Kadri Wessel's lawyer, Rodney Dixon, has asked.

Yes, the number that the lawyer mentions, there are 10 remaining witnesses, but out of these 10, many or some of them will go according to rule 153,154 or be removed from the witness list. We don't think the 10 witnesses will be heard in the March block, nor will they be heard beyond this date. But as far as setting a deadline, this is arbitrary”, Pace has responded.