CONFIDENTIAL

Many times during the course of these trials the accused have
been removed from the court room during the testimony of a witness.
Each witness is informed that the accused will be removed if the wit-
ness will feel more free to testify truthfully. In many cases the
witness exercises this right. The right- is also granted to each
accused in having the other accused excluded from the court room during
his testimony.

In one case, where the defense vigorously objected to the exclu-
sion of other accused while each accused testified, the chief judge
solved the problem by ordering separate trials of each accused, again
over objection by defense counsel. Sach accused was then placed on the
stand by the prosecutor outsiae the presence of most of the other
accused before any other evidence was introduced either by prosecutor
or aefense counsel.

This is a practice which was rarely used in the civilian criminal

courts, and then primarily in sex cases where the victim desires that
a

the accused be excluded. In such cases the Code of Criminal Procedure

requires that a summary of the witness's testimony be provided to the
aa This procedure has been disregarded in the revolutionary
trials, and the accused must rely on their counsel who are present
throughout the taking ‘of such testimony to inform them of the substance
of the witness's testimony when and if the chance presents itself.

ST

52 ;
Code of Criminal Procedure, Art. 297(2).

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CONFIDENTIAL