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Good morning. We'll take appearances, please.
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Good morning Mr President, your Honours, opposing counsel. This morning for the Prosecution are Mohamed A Bangura, Christopher Santora, myself Brenda J Hollis and our case manager, Maja Dimitrova.
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[Open session]
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[The accused present]
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[Upon commencing at 9.30 a.m.]
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Thank you. Yes, Mr Griffiths.
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Good morning Mr President, your Honours, counsel opposite. For the Defence today are myself Courtenay Griffiths, assisted by my learned friends Mr Morris Anyah, Mr Silas Chekera and can I introduce Isaac Ip, who is a member of the Bar of New Jersey and who is with us as an intern.
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That's I-P, is it?
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I-P, yes.
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Thank you, Mr Griffiths, and welcome to the Court, Mr Ip. Yes, Mr Griffiths.
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Your Honour, before I commence, can I mention one logistical thing and it's this. We appreciate that we've burdened everyone with a large volume of documentation and I appreciate the practical difficulties of transporting that into the courtroom every day.
The point I make is this. If the authorities within the building are agreeable we are quite happy for that material to be kept in court because, as far as we're concerned, there's nothing confidential in them. So rather than be transporting these files backwards and forwards every day, it seems much easier for all concerned if they were to remain in court if that's possible.
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All right. Well we'll have the Court Manager and the senior legal officer look into that prospect, Mr Griffiths.
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Now can I deal with one preliminary matter, Mr President, and it's this. At the end of a long week last Thursday, I failed to ask for two documents I introduced to be marked for identification. The first is our document 10 in the bundle of additional documents to which I referred at page 25159 of the transcript.
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That's the ballot paper?
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And the appended report from the Carter Centre.
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Which is the actual document you want marked?
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All of the papers behind divider 10.
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That would be the ballot paper and then the Carter Centre report?
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Yes, and that would be MFI-12.
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Do you want that as the one document?
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As one document, please.
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Thank you. The ballot paper is actually part of the Carter Centre report, is that right?
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As far as I'm aware, yes, your Honour.
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Well, the Carter Centre report dated 5 May 1999 incorporating the ballot paper will be marked for identification MFI-12.
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Now the second document I introduced, your Honour, which I failed to request that it be marked, is that New African article behind divider 9. It is the New African magazine December 1997 edition.
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Yes, the copy of the article from the New African magazine December 1997 edition entitled "Taylor's Triumph" will be marked for identification MFI-13.
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I'm grateful.
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Just before you proceed, Mr Griffiths, I forgot to remind Mr Taylor that he is still bound by his declaration to tell the truth. Yes, go ahead, Mr Griffiths.
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I'm grateful.
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