Ref: A00-300995 Case No. 871626 Macpherson II
Volume VII, Pages 1-5, Thursday 22th June, 1989
(In the presence of the jury)
MR. TEMPLE: My Lord, before concluding the Crown's case, may I
introduce a further exhibit? Members of the jury, for your
part would you go to page 361. For your Lordship's note,
may I give the Court an indication that we already know that
some floppy disks were found at Strickland Court. This
exhibit, No. 57, which starts at document page 361, is a
print-out of one of these particular disks and for your
Lordship's purpose the original exhibit was 65. This exhibit
is in fact formally produced by Mr. Walton, who is the
scientist who did the process of printing out the floppy
disks.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Is there any point why we should look
at it?
MR. TEMPLE: Perhaps I can take it briefly.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: I think you had better take the jury
through it to make the point that is aimed by the document.
MR. TEMPLE: The floppy disks found at Strickland Court, this
is a print-out from one of them and we can see at page 361
this is a letter which is obviously familiar to you. It is a
copy of the accompanying letter to the original demand
document sent to Cyprus on 23rd March. If you would like to
find your page 5, that will be your counter-reference.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: I do not think there is any need to read
it, ladies and gentlemen. You see the connection; that
proved that the disk was at Mr. Koupparis's premises in
London and there is the letter which went with the two sets
of demand documents.
MR. TEMPLE: The next page, 362 to 364, is a letter which we can
see is dated 20th March 1987, and it starts, "Dear
Miss Hallouma". It is clear from the reference that in fact
Miss Hallouma was the defendant's sister-in-law.
My Lord, this is the first time the jury have seen this
document. It seems to me that there is not going to be very
much merit in my simply reading it out aloud. Perhaps the
jury might like to read it through themselves, unless of
course Mr. Beckman wishes me to deal with any particular.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: I think the best thing would be to ask
you to read it later on, perhaps at the adjournment.
Mr. Temple, I think that is better rather than reading it
now.
MR. TEMPLE: The next reference is page 365. Would you also have
available to you page 288. Again we can take these two
references quite shortly. Page 288 is the courier's
instructions which were enclosed in the Nemo envelope left at
the airport. All you have here from the print-out on 365 is
a copy of that particular letter.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: That is the proposed courier,
Mr. Winthorpe [sic], who was going to bring the money back.
MR. TEMPLE: Page 366. I just want to spend a little time on
this.
"Dear Mr. Kyprianou, We hope that the elusive
page 5 of our report did not cause any confusion.
We sincerely hope that you got the message as
this is the moment of truth."
Members of the jury, the reference to the elusive page 5
becomes very clear when you look at the original
documentation which was sent out to the Presidential Palace
in Cyprus, which you will find at pages 277 and 278. Look
at the top right hand reference on 277 and 278. You can
see what has happened; you see page 6 and page 6. In other
words, when the pagination was being done he has obviously
left out page 5. Hence, going back to our 366, you can see
the reason, or the inferential reason. "We hope that the
elusive page 5 of our report did not cause any confusion."
This letter at 366 carried on: "This is the signal you
have been waiting for. Your check list is page 10 of our
report." That is a reference to page 282, and all I need do
in order that we can understand the rest of the letter at 266
is just invite your attention to paragraph 2 on page 282:
"The Minister of Finance will be personally responsible", and
in a nutshell we know that the instructions on 282 really
relate to the delivery.
Back to 366. "Your check list is page 10 of our report,
follow it to the letter". Then it reads:
"Time, place, MOF (Minister of Finance) must
be in the Hilton lobby, Nicosia, as soon as
possible. Contact: we will contact your
representative. Limit: if contact is not
established by four o'clock local time the
mission has been abandoned. Prepare to face
the consequences."
Then finally:
"Important: On your default, non-compliance
or deviation from the plan, Cyprus has two
hours of grace before we exercise our option
to demonstrate our abilities; enough time to
collect all your decision makers and regional
governors into Nicosia, the only place that we
can guarantee will be untouched by contamination.
After six o'clock local time we will act, in an
hour, a day, a week, a month or whenever the
time is suitable.
"This is a zero option situation; we have no
other choice. Remember, you will be under
surveillance from the start of this mission.
Good luck! Commander Nemo, Force Majeure."
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Would you just pause. At the top is a
date, Mr. Temple. It was never actually despatched?
MR. TEMPLE: No, my Lord, this was never despatched.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Ladies and gentlemen, do not forget that
it says, "Despatched 28th March 1987", but it was never
actually sent. It was on tape being prepared but was never
actually sent.
MR. TEMPLE: And the same comment applies to the final two of
these pages, 367 and 368; 367 entitled "Mission
accomplished" - you might like to cast your eyes on that
document - and finally 368 entitled "Failsafe". If any of
you have difficulty in reading the penultimate paragraph it
reads:
"We have set up a station in Lebanon to monitor
the CBS VHF televison [sic] channel during this
critical period to signal to us that your
intentions are genuine."
My Lord, on that note I close the Crown's case.
MR. BECKMAN: Would your Lordship allow me a moment?
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Yes. (Pause) While Mr. Beckman is
talking to Mr. Temple, you appreciate that is the end of the
evidence for the prosecution and Mr. Beckman will either
address you or call evidence, or both, on behalf of the
defence.
MR. BECKMAN: I am obliged, my Lord. It turns on matters
discussed yesterday to make sure the prosecution and myself
agreed; I am sorry we did not discuss it earlier. The other
matter is I will want a short period of time after I have
completed my opening speech to see my client.
(Mr. Beckman opened the case on behalf of the defendant)
MR. BECKMAN: I wonder if you would have an early adjournment?
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: What is that for? Why can we not start
the evidence? We are ready for the evidence now. Is it a
case that you want to take instructions? If so tell me
"Yes" or "No" and I will rise, but if not we will call
evidence.
MR. BECKMAN: My Lord, because the case has gone so fast ---
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Do you wish to consult with your client?
MR. BECKMAN: I do not know, my Lord. If your Lordship wishes me
to tell your Lordship what happened in open court I am
content to do so.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: If you wish to consult with your client
I will rise; is that what you want to do?
MR. BECKMAN: My Lord, I would like - if I said that is the only
reason I wish you to rise - if your Lordship wishes to know
why, I am content to tell your Lordship.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Mr. Beckman, I think it is time you
started to be courteous to me. I will rise. I will sit at
12.40 p.m.
(The trial was adjourned for a short time)
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Are you ready or not? If not I will
rise again.
MR. BECKMAN: My Lord, I am not.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Then we will rise until 2.05 p.m.
(The trial was adjourned for a short time)
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