Eliézer Niyitegeka filed a motion for review before the Appeals Chamber, requesting the Appeals Chamber, inter alia, to admit excerpts of closed session transcripts from other cases to which he had not been granted access. The Appeals Chamber declined to examine those excerpts “obtained in direct violation of Trial Chambers’ orders”.[1] Following the Appeals Chamber’s decision, Eliézer Niyitegeka requested access to the relevant closed session transcripts to the relevant Trial Chambers. His requests were denied, together with his requests for reconsideration and for certification of an appeal. Eliézer Niyitegeka then filed a motion for clarification before the Appeals Chamber.

8.       […] the Appeals Chamber recalls that, in its Decision on Third Request for Review, it stated that the closed session material submitted by the Applicant in support of his Third Request for Review had been “obtained in direct violation of Trial Chambers’ orders”.[2] The Appeals Chamber was well aware that the Applicant was not a party to the proceedings in which the protective measures were ordered. However, it considered that, by obtaining and making use of closed session material to which he undoubtedly knew that he was not authorized to have access, the Applicant took part in the breach of the Trial Chambers’ orders committed by those who were directly bound by them. The Applicant therefore participated in the violation of the orders for protective measures imposed by the Trial Chambers and, thereby, “seriously undermine[d] the integrity of the Tribunal’s proceedings”.[3]    

11.     […] the Appeals Chamber clarifies that, although the Applicant was not a party to the cases in which the protective measures were ordered, he was bound by the Trial Chambers’ orders not to disclose confidential material from the moment it came into his possession. Similar to what the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia found in respect of closed session orders,[4] the Appeals Chamber considers that the orders of protective measures apply to all persons coming into possession of protected information. This is necessary, in particular, in order to comply with the Tribunal’s obligation pursuant to Article 21 of the Statute to protect witnesses on whose behalf protective measures have been ordered. Such orders would be meaningless if third parties were allowed to disclose confidential information on the sole ground that the orders were not expressly directed to them.