Day 10 – 12 January 2011
We here more from the second officer, from one of the accused and from another 'expert' from the forensic institute.
The second officer from the Ukraine is back giving evidence. He is asked about the guns and keeps referring to a photo the captain made which he says clearly shows a person with a grenade launcher. The judge shows him the only photo he has that matches the description – but it's from far away and no details are visible. Strange how the human mind interprets things. But he says that there were a lot more photos on the ship's computer. The judge asks if the officer had a copy of them and the answer is a maybe. So the judge orders the photos to be brought to court.
It turns out the officer has been interviewed four times already – first by the Dutch military, then by German police in Dubai, then by the Dubai authorities and finally again by German police in the Ukraine.
Then a third accused, U. makes a personal statement through his lawyer. He is a fisherman and he was hired because he could navigate a boat. It wasn't' until he was on board the boat that he found out what the plan was. First he was scared of the guns, then he was scared of the Dutch military. His lawyer applies for bail.
Finally, Dr. Kammal from the forensic institute of the University Hospital UKE gives evidence about is examination of the youngest accused. He says he was surprised that the accused arrived without an interpreter. This was unusual and meant that he could not take his medical history into account. When he first saw the accused, he thought that he was very young and only after applying the so-called 'Tanner method' to estimate his age revised his judgement.
He uses the 'Tanner method' to determine a person's age by the development of the pubic hair. He admitted that the method was not very accurate. When asked whether the results were applicable to a non-European population he hesitated for a long time before saying that applying the method one-to-one to other populations would have to be viewed critically.
