⁴⁶⁶³⁷

Monday, 21 November 2005

[Open session]

[The accused not present in court]

--- Upon commencing at 9.01 a.m.

JUDGE ROBINSON: We have been advised that, on account of his ill health, the accused will not be attending court today. We expect a report on his current medical condition from the detention doctor, Dr. Falke, later today. And then you'll recall that we had ordered reports from the treating cardiologist and the treating ENT specialist. Those reports we should get later today as well. And when we have studied those reports along with the report from Dr. Falke on the current condition of the accused, we will be in a position to determine what to do about sittings, further sittings. It may be that we'll make an order later today.

MR. KAY: Does Your Honour know if there will be a hearing tomorrow anyway?

JUDGE ROBINSON: That's what I am trying to determine, Mr. Kay. I would rather put it this way: We'll be in a position to make that determination when we have received the reports on his current medical condition as well as the reports which we had ordered last week from the ENT specialist and the cardiologist. So we'll make an order later today, I would think, which would say whether there will be a sitting tomorrow.

MR. KAY: Thank you. We can be in touch, anyway, with the Chamber in relation to any sitting for tomorrow at whatever time.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Certainly.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, I would invite the Chamber to consider the ⁴⁶⁶³⁸ sense, or the good sense of ensuring that Mr. Kay and the witness in waiting get together, because the time may have come when it will be appropriate for Mr. Kay to be leading evidence again whether the accused is here or not. Now, the witness Sel, who doesn't have a very great number of exhibits, I think, has been here many days and no doubt, through the offices of the associates of the accused or through the Registry or through the pro se liaison officer, preparing to call that witness is something that Mr. Kay and Ms. Higgins could be getting on with.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Kay may be in a perpetual state of readiness, but the Chamber does not consider it appropriate at this time to instruct him to get in touch with witnesses. As I said, we are waiting on two sets of reports, and when we have examined those reports we'll be in a better position to determine what to do about the future conduct of the trial. It may very well that the accused will be here tomorrow.

MR. NICE: And Your Honour, for our part, we will be available today for any further hearing --

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please, Mr. Nice.

MR. NICE: We, for our part, will be available today for any further short hearing, and given the time that's already passed without evidence being called, I would be pressing the Chamber to consider alternative means of ensuring the case moves ahead if ill health does look like continuing. I can only repeat the point I made last week, I think, that this evidence is particularly the sort of evidence that typically wouldn't require necessarily the presence of an accused to hear it, but ⁴⁶⁶³⁹ I've made that point already.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, we have your submissions on that, Mr. Nice. We are adjourned.

--- Whereupon the hearing adjourned sine die at 9.07 a.m.