XN000022-1995-06-14 — Page 50

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Reply:

Mr President,

In the past three years, there have been three cases in the High Court where defendants were acquitted because key prosecution witnesses gave evidence at the trial which was contradictory to their earlier statements. All three were murder cases.

During the same period, there were 27 District Court cases where the defendants were acquitted because key witnesses for the Prosecution either suffered a lapse of memory or gave evidence in court contradictory to their earlier statements and damaging to the Prosecution's case. A breakdown of such cases by reference to the type of offences is shown at the table attached to this reply. We do not have statistics of such cases in the Magistrate's Courts. To put these figures into context, during the past 3 years, there have been 2,299 cases in the High Court and 4,481 cases in the District Court.

As regards the second part of the question, the following arrangements are already in place:

(a)

It is a civic duty of every citizen to give true and full evidence in legal proceedings. The Government has published posters and leaflets to assure the public of their rights as a witness and to give sensible and useful guidance to witnesses as to what is expected of them when giving evidence in court. There are also Announcements of Public Interest and television programmes like "Crime Watch" and "Police Magazine" to encourage witnesses to come forward to testify in court;

(b) The Government is making every effort to ensure that witnesses will be given adequate protection and assurance where necessary. The Police have in place a wide range of witness protection arrangements. A Police Central Witness Protection Unit has been set up to implement and co- ordinate these arrangements;

(c)

Those who try to intimidate witnesses or interfere with witnesses are liable to be prosecuted, subject to the availability of evidence, with the offence of attempting to pervert the course of public justice which carries a maximum penalty of 7 years imprisonment; and

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