At the criminal trial for the murder of Ihsane Jarfi, Philippe Gorle, President of Liege Assises Court, delivered a judgment on Thursday afternoon, authorising the broadcast in open court, of a video recorded by investigators during the reconstruction of the crime scene. Although attorneys for the 4 defendants were not able to see the video beforehand, it does not violate the principle of an adversary procedure. Attorneys for Jonathan Lekeu had interrupted the testimony of an investigator on Thursday afternoon which led to a procedural issue. They were protesting against the broadcast of a video showing a reconstruction of events. The attorneys, who had not had access to the video before the session, alleged that adversarial process had been violated and insisted on seeing the video before it was shown to the jury.
The reconstruction of events, which took place in the presence of the attorneys, lasted 10 hours. Some of the sequences had been filmed. The head of the investigation wished to broadcast the video, which shows an unedited series of sequences recorded one after the other.
But the defence attorneys seized the opportunity to raise a procedural issue. They alleged they should have had access to the video before it was shown and thus be allowed to prepare their defence. They protested against it was contrary to the adversary procedure.
The court was suspended whilst a decision was drawn up arguing that the adversarial process had not been violated and ordering the continuation of the trial. The investigator was therefore able to show the jury the video filmed during the reconstruction of events.
(Source: Belga)
Criminal trial in Liege – video of reconstruction of events approved
At the criminal trial for the murder of Ihsane Jarfi, Philippe Gorle, President of Liege Assises Court, delivered a judgment on Thursday afternoon, authorising the broadcast in open court, of a video recorded by investigators during the reconstruction of the crime scene. Although attorneys for the 4 defendants were not able to see the video beforehand, it does not violate the principle of an adversary procedure.
Attorneys for Jonathan Lekeu had interrupted the testimony of an investigator on Thursday afternoon which led to a procedural issue. They were protesting against the broadcast of a video showing a reconstruction of events. The attorneys, who had not had access to the video before the session, alleged that adversarial process had been violated and insisted on seeing the video before it was shown to the jury.
The reconstruction of events, which took place in the presence of the attorneys, lasted 10 hours. Some of the sequences had been filmed. The head of the investigation wished to broadcast the video, which shows an unedited series of sequences recorded one after the other.
But the defence attorneys seized the opportunity to raise a procedural issue. They alleged they should have had access to the video before it was shown and thus be allowed to prepare their defence. They protested against it was contrary to the adversary procedure.
The court was suspended whilst a decision was drawn up arguing that the adversarial process had not been violated and ordering the continuation of the trial. The investigator was therefore able to show the jury the video filmed during the reconstruction of events.
(Source: Belga)
