Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 04
1 Your Lordship said some quite solemn words (I took them to
2 be) when Mr. Jenssen was here on Thursday, 2nd November,
3 about the way in which you intended to treat the French
4 evidence.
5
6 I notice in passing that Mademoiselle Villeneuve-Gallez's
7 second statement is dated 6th November, which is a week
8 ago. It is all very well for Mr. Morris to say blithely,
9 "Well, these are the documents, the B documents, which are
10 referred to in the statement." I do not know that that is
11 right; I have not looked at them.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not going to look at the documents.
14 I am going to put them on one side, and I am not going to
15 have any reference to them during Mr. Lamti's evidence, if
16 you take any objection to them.
17
18 MR. RAMPTON: Well, I do, for that reason.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As far as I understand it from Mr. Morris, he
21 has his oral evidence; he says he has disclosed them
22 because there is an obligation to disclose them; and I do
23 not see any need to refer to any of them.
24
25 MR. RAMPTON: I am grateful to your Lordship for that. I will
26 leave the B documents. I am concerned about the second
27 statement of the lady, Villeneuve-Gallez, because I have
28 not read it. I do not know whether the translation is
29 accurate. I would not want it read today -- she is a Civil
30 Evidence Act witness, anyway -- until such time as we have
31 had a chance to go through it, if necessary, to take
32 instructions on it. I do not know. I do not know what it
33 says.
34
35 The only remaining thing, then, is the amended translation
36 of Mr. Lamti's first statement. I say at once that I have
37 been able to take instructions on what Mr. Morris is
38 pleased to call his second statement, and that does not
39 present a problem. But I would like some time -- I happen
40 to have a bilingual French speaker here in court with me,
41 and I would like a little time with him just to run through
42 the amendments to the first Lamti statement, in order to
43 see that they are accurate. If they are, then I am quite
44 happy that that first statement should be read in English
45 as the evidence of the witness, in accordance with
46 your Lordship's direction on Thursday, 2nd November.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is no immediate problem with regard to
49 Villeneuve-Gallez, because there is no need for her
50 statement to be read today. She has not come to this
51 country to give oral evidence. When you have had an
52 opportunity to consider that evidence, the original and the
53 translation, if there is any dispute about it I can deal
54 with that.
55
56 What I suggest is that Mr. Lamti's evidence-in-chief is
57 taken; then you can take stock, and if you want time then
58 to consult with your translator, then certainly you shall
59 have that time.
60
