4 November 2011
Another accused makes a statement. He tells the court of how he was hired to repair outboard motors on fishing boats and ended up on the Taipan. The defence asks to have his colleagues from the workshop in Mogadishu heard. The prosecution objects with the argument that a foreign witness lacks credibility. The defence points out that this point was not raised when the Dutch marines were interviewed and that not hearing foreign witnesses in a matter that took case outside of Germany would be rather strange.
The rest of the day is spent with a set of applications to hear witnesses. First, the lawyer of one accused asks to have a lie detector test applied to his client. Then the defence for another accused applies to hear witnesses from Somalia who can testify that their client was forced to participate because of a debt. They also want to hear the various intelligence services in order to establish the whereabouts of Dhagawayne (“Big Ears”).
8 November 2011
The day starts with everyone waiting for 40 minutes for the judges. As a result, the next hearing will start at 10.
Then the judge declines the application from the last hearing to use a lie detector and to hear a ethnological expert. Another application is made to hear the translator who was involved in the interviews that were made on the Dutch frigate.
Finally, the judge reads out a report on the three under-age defendants made by the prison.
14 November 2011
The judges declines pretty much all of the applications that were made in the last couple of hearings and insists on reading out handwritten note that one of the accused had with himn when he was transferred from th Netherlands to Germany. The defence objects to this note being read out but to no avail.
