Court procedure; German style

I thought readers might be interested in a brief review of the court case I attended last week. I hasten to add, as a spectator, not in any "official" capacity.

The case is an interesting one for a number of reasons. The accused is charged with two counts of manslaughter and disposed of the bodies by burning them in a very interesting manner. This is the reason I attended the trial and I will give more details when I am able to do so.

The German Courts have no Jury, the bench has five members, with a Presiding Judge, two Assessors and two lay members drawn from the electoral rolls by ballot in much the same manner as the UK's Jury Selection process. One difference, however, is the fact that potential lay members are screened to ensure they are qualified to understand the complexities of the case. Seated on either side of the court, with the defence at a level lower than the bench, are the Prosecutor on the Right of the Bench and the Defence facing him on the left. A major difference with a UK Court is the presence on the Prosecution's side of a Legal Rep and the victim's family representative, with another Legal Rep on the Defence side representing the accused's family! Cross-examination is generally led, as in the UK system, by the Prosecution, followed by the Defence, but then the other two parties are also allowed to examine the witness as are the three judges.

On the day I was present the evidence was being given by a Pathologist and a representative of the Bundeskriminalamt's Forensic Science Institute's Fire Investigation Unit and the questions all revolved around the method of destroying a body by fire. Watching the cross examination and listening to the technical answers proved very interesting indeed. Video of some experiments was shown, powerpoint was used, copies of technical papers circulated and examined and the court even adjourned to read a rather longer and more complicated one submitted by the FIO.

In the end the court adjourned, but issued a recall for the experts for later this month to answer specific questions raised in the evidence and which will require further research and calculation.

One thing was clearly evident throughout, bias is very difficult to sustain in this environment since, with four legal teams present and the bench any attempt at bias is quickly revealed. Unlike the "Adversarial" approach in the UK which does teend to sway a jury, there is a much calmer and more inquisitorial approach in this system. That said, don't try to evade a question or deliver a half answer. The Judges are very quick to demand a proper response and to dismiss anything which is inappropriate.

So how do the "Lay" members of the bench function?

They are also permitted to ask for explanations, though they usually do so through one of the Judges. Their main function is to listen, to watch and to assist the Judge in reaching a conclusion - and obviously, to ensure that conclusion has been reached in a balanced and even handed manner.

Of all the courts I have attended, this one struck me as being very fair in its deliberations (Interestingly the BKA witness and the Pathologist were called by the Defence Team.) and to contain some checks and balances not always present in a jury system. Giving evidence in this style of court may be slightly more 'relaxed' but is still no place for ill-informed or unscientific witnesses, the least suspicion of unqualified or unquantifiable answers or of unsubstantiated evidence is likely to bring down the wrath of the bench on the witness and get the evidence challenged and dismissed.

If you're lucky, you'll escape with a caution not to waste the courts time...

Having watched this court at work, I seriously recommend to everyone that time spent in the public gallery of a range of different courts and legal systems will be time very well spent indeed.

Training abroad

One of the things you very rapidly discover when trying to train Fire Investigators abroad is that there are a number of things that affect fire growth, spread, development and behaviour which differemarkedly from country to country. One such item is building construction, the traditional Class B structure is very rare indeed and even the type of "dry lined" and "dry wall" construction is seldom used in the Middle East - at least in those parts I am engaged in. Here in Iran the "state of the art" for light weight construction is to use PU Foam panels as curtain walls and internal divisions. It gets a layer of cement applied to both sides over a heavy metal mesh and then is faced with either a thicker layer of gypsum plaster or dressed with polished decorative stone panels, cemented and grouted in place. And they go up to more than twelve storeys with it.



Fire loads are also different, in that much of the furnishing one encounters is not foam filled, or contains very little. Certainly in the poorer quarters uphosltery tends to be done with traditional materials and a lot of natural fibre is used. One of the more amusing, from our perspective, problems has been in fitting out our real fire scenarios for the students - the curtain materials we have been supplied with don't burn. They melt, they char, the fall down - but no burn! So there are parallels, and there are some fairly interesting differences in how things behave and how the structures respond.

Another interesting matter is the electrical system. It is a hybrid in that the main system is Three Phase Three Wire with Earth Neutral. But now some parts are Four Wire and some new buildings are Four Wire, but supplied by a Three Wire supply. I shall leave it to you, the reader, to figure out what this means in terms of safety systems.

Some of the older buildings are built, managed and occupied on "traditional" lines. Fires in these areas tend to be dramatic, large and probably lethal, though we haven't as yet, been told of any. The picture below gives some idea of the Old Bazaar, Fire Safety Officers are advised to view with caution. Just in case you wondered, it covers 460 hectares....



The picture was taken on a quiet day, normally this is heaving with people, barrows and even motorcycles. And this is one of the better areas. It has certainly been an interesting experience for us and a rewarding one. The students are eager and despite the language difficulties and the problems of trying to ensure that the translation is accurate, the message does seem to be getting across successfully.