Haradinaj trial: “Modified” solemn declaration

Haradinaj trial: “Modified” solemn declaration

The evidence of protected prosecution witness, testifying under the pseudonym Witness 56, was delayed by an hour at the Hague Wednesday at the trial of Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj, because the witness refused to make the solemn declaration.

The witness was in Priština and was testifying via video link with image distortion. When the presiding judge invited him to state he would “speak the truth and nothing but the truth,” the witness said he had already told the truth to the investigators and that he had nothing to add to it.

He kept repeating the same words despite Judge Orie’s efforts to explain the procedure to him. It is unclear whether the witness didn’t understand what he was asked to do or refused to follow the Chamber’s instructions.

After a ten-minute break during which a Registry official explained to him that he had to make the solemn declaration, the witness again refused to say the whole text, and the Chamber then decided to allow him to begin his evidence after he confirmed that he would be speaking the truth. After he made the modified solemn declaration, his evidence continued in closed session.

In the prosecution’s pre-trial brief, Witness 56 is described as the father-in-law of Witness 61, who claimed in her evidence that the accused Idriz "Toger" Balaj had raped her in the KLA headquarters in Rznić. She said she had told her family all of it a few hours after the incident and that the next day her father-in-law, Witness 56, had gone to the headquarters to make a complaint about Balaj’s conduct.

Before he began his testimony today, during the wrangling about the solemn declaration, the witness said he had explained to the investigators he didn’t know anyone named Toger, although he had never been asked anything about him.