PROSECUTOR v SAM HINGA NORMAN & ORS - REVISED ORDER FOR THE FILING OF DEFENCE PRE-TRIAL BRIEFS - Case No.SCSL-04-14-PT [2004] SCSL 51 (22 March 2004)

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SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE
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Before:	Judge Bankole Thompson Judge Benjamin Mutanga Itoe Pierre Boutet
Registrar:	Robin Vincent
Date:	22 March 2004
PROSECUTOR	Against	Sam Hinga Norman Moinina Fofana Allieu Kondewa (Case No.SCSL-04-14-PT)

Office of the Prosecutor:		Defence Counsel for Sam Hinga Norman:
Luc Côté		James Jenkins-Johnston Defence Counsel for Moinina Fofana:
		Michiel Pestman
		Defence Counsel for Allieu Kondewa Charles Margai

THE TRIAL CHAMBER (“Trial Chamber”) of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (“Special Court”);

RECALLING the Trial Chamber’s “Order for Filing Pre-Trial Briefs” of 13 February 2004, in which it ordered that each Defence team file its pre-trial brief by 23 March 2004, pursuant to Rule 54 and Rule 73 bis (F) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Special Court (“Rules”);

NOTING that the Office of the Prosecutor (“Prosecution”) filed its pre-trial brief on 2 March 2004,[1] in accordance with the Trial Chamber’s Order;

CONSIDERING the submissions of defence counsel for Sam Hinga Norman, Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa at the Status Conference on 4 March 2004 on various issues including disclosure;

CONSIDERING that defence counsel for Sam Hinga Norman requested that the date for filing its pre-trial brief be suspended until after full disclosure or otherwise until after the order on Protective Measures is lifted;

CONSIDERING that each party is to address factual and legal issues in its pre-trial brief for the purposes of, inter alia, assisting the Trial Chamber in determining contested issues of fact and law;

CONSIDERING that the Trial Chamber, and indeed opposing counsel, will be more greatly assisted by a well-prepared, detailed pre-trial brief than by a pre-trial brief drafted without the benefit of extensive disclosure and sufficient pre-trial preparation;

FINDING THEREFORE that it is in the interests of justice to revise the Order of 13 February 2004 in relation to the date for filing pre-trial briefs by the Defence in this case; and

HEREBY ORDERS that the pre-trial briefs shall be filed by each Defence team in this case two weeks prior to the date for the commencement of trial.

Done at Freetown this 22nd day of March 2004
Judge Bankole Thompson	Judge Benjamin Mutanga Itoe	Judge Pierre Boutet
Presiding Judge, Trial Chamber
[Seal of the Special Court for Sierra Leone]

[1] Prosecution’s Pre-Trial Brief Pursuant to Order for Filing Pre-Trial Briefs (under Rules 54 and 73 bis) of 13 February 2004, 2 March 2004.