Pleading aggravating circumstances

Notion(s) Filing Case
Appeal Judgement - 27.11.2007 SIMBA Aloys
(ICTR-01-76-A)

82. The Appeals Chamber recalls that the charges against an accused and the material facts supporting those charges must be pleaded with sufficient precision in the Indictment so as to provide notice to the accused.[1] By the same token, for sentencing purposes, a Trial Chamber may only consider in aggravation circumstances pleaded in the Indictment.[2]

[1] Gacumbitsi Appeal Judgement, para. 49; Simić et al. Appeal Judgement, para. 20.

[2] Delalić et al. Appeal Judgement, para. 763 (“The Appeals Chamber agrees that only those matters which are proved beyond reasonable doubt against an accused may be the subject of an accused’s sentence or taken into account in aggravation of that sentence.”); Kunarac et al. Trial Judgement, para. 850 (“Only those circumstances directly related to the commission of the offence charged and to the offender himself when he committed the offence, such as the manner in which the offence was committed, may be considered in aggravation. In other words, circumstances not directly related to an offence may not be used in aggravation of an offender’s sentence for that offence. To permit otherwise would be to whittle away the purpose and import of an indictment.”).

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