Defence Speech

Counsel would like to seek permission from the bench to approach the Dias.

This is counsel on the behalf the defence appearing in the matter of prosecutor v chamberlain

May the cousel have the permission to refer to bench collectively as your Excellencies

I’ll be dealing with the opening statement and the examination in chief and my co counsel
will deal with cross examination and closing statement.

Before coming on to the issues faced by the court it is very imperative to discuss about the
relevant facts of the case.

Glador has been an epitome of civil rights model for the entire world. Galador share
boundaries with Perotia and Gobdidi. Galador and gobidi have hostile relation as gobidi has
many terrorist links. Because of this fact galador has to spend 3% of its GDP on defence.

Now we know Galdorian government is very affectionate towards the xula speaking people.
The situation refrred in the decision of the pre trial chamber pertains to the internal conflict in
Perotia and the logistical support given by the gladorian government to the members of bell
dome to fight against the autocratic government. According to a referendum conducted in bell
town most of the natives wanted to seek asylum in galador. After the skirmishes there was
mass exodus of people from perotia to galador in search of asylum.

In order to handle the situation of this mass incoming of refuges the government has to set off
shore detention centres, as whenever there is influx of huge number of refuges there is a
threat to national security of the country. Also because of the facts that galador shares border
with gobidi and the bad relation of the glador with perotia it was imperative on them make
detention centres with proper verification process.

Now on 23rd January what happended was, a lone ship was coming to the territory of the
Galador. Border security even tried to best to communicate to the ship, but all their attempts
were in vain. After various falied attempt, they got really suspicious the ship and asked mr
alex chamberlain to assess the situation. Mr alex chamberlain was instructed that there may
be hostile forces on the ship, chamberlain dispatched his troops as soon was possible and
when the trrops reached the 40 metre mark from Goliath shot were fired from the goliath
itself and even barbed wires were thrown at the vessels.. Yielding to the circumstances the
troops had to retialite and board the ship.

Now the counsel seeks the permission from the bench to address the issues faced by the
court. The there major issues are –

Whether the accused is guilty of cah of murder

Whether there should be legal re characterisation of facts pursuant to regulation 55

Whether accused is guilty of crime under Article 8 that is war crime.

Coming on to the first issue

1. Not directed against the civilian population

2. It was not in furtherance of state or organisational policy

With the help of defence mistake of fact the counsel during the course of trial will
show that the accused lacked the mens rea element to commit the crime

Secondly, there should not be any legal recharacterisation of facts

Not comes under the ambit of routine functioning,

Rome statue strictly proscribes amenedment of charges

It also violates the accused right to free trial as accused did not know the specifc counts of
war crime he is charged with and therefore he canot preprare his defense

Now dealing with the third issue the accused has committed no war crimes

No international armed conflict