Today, the Indian journalist R. was interviewed again. First he told the court that he had the phone number of the alleged pirate leader Dhaghaweyne (who had not been on the Taipan and had not been arrested). He was sure that it was Dhaghaweyne's private number, but he hadn't talked to him yet. He read the number out loud and everyone, including the press, wrote it down.
But then R. didn't want to reveal the names and addresses of his relatives in India, who he said he had visited prior to interviewing the crew of the Hudhud. He was also very vague in answering the question of whether he had had a conversation with the crew prior to the filmed interview, during which he may have suggested their answers.
Lastly, he revealed that during the conversation he had had with the German federal police, there had been two more police officers present. Because there had been contradictions between R.'s recollection of the conversation and the notes made by one of the officers afterwards, the court reluctantly agreed to an application by the defence to have these other two police officers heard in court.
Because the unofficial 'crown witness' X had stated that he would not answer questions from the other defence lawyers, they applied to the court to take over a list of 20 questions they had compiled for X and ask them as questions from the court. The court will decide about this at the next hearing. Both the court and X denied that there had been any out-of-court agreement between X, the prosecution and the judge regarding his statements.
This was the last trial date before the summer holidays, the next date is July 12. The judge noted that this may sound strange to those who are held in custody
