Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 49 Part 1.djvu/1608

 74 TH C ONGRESS. SESS. II. CH. 640. JUNE 20, 1936 . 1 563 b Any consular officer to whom a commission is addressed to Consular officer;. y Taking of testimony ; take testimony, who is interested in the outcome of the criminal acti on when disqualified. or p roceeding in whic h the foreign doc uments in questio n are to be used or has participat ed in the prosecuti on of such action o r proc eeding, whether b y investigations, preparation of e vidence, or othe rwise, may be dis qualified on his own motion or on that of the United States or any other party to such criminal action or proceed- ing made to the court from which the c ommission issued at any time prio r to the executio n thereof. If, afte r no tice and hear ing, the court grants the motion, it shall instruct the consular officer thus disqualified to send the commission to any other consular officer of the United States nam ed by the court, and such other of ficer shall execute the commission according to its terms and shall for all pur- pose s be deemed the o fficer to whom th e commission is a ddressed. (c) The provisions of this Act applicable to consular officers shall Provisio ns applic able be applicable to diplomatic officers pursuant to such regulations as to diplomatic officers. may be prescribed by the President. SEC. 4. The consular officer to whom any commission authorized . Consular o fficer ta k- under this Act is addressed shall take testimony in accordance with tn'P testimony. rocedure, etc. its terms. Every person whose testimony is taken shall be cau- tioned and sworn to testify the whole truth and carefully examined. His testimony shall be reduced to writing or typewriting by the consular officer taking t he testimony, or by some person un der his personal supervision, or by the witness himself, in the presence of the consular officer and by no other person, and shall, after it has been reduced to writing or typewriting, be subscribed by the witness. Every foreign document, with respect to which testimony is taken Foreign document to be an nex ed to tes ti- shall be annexed to such testimony and subscribed by each witness mo ray ; subs criptions. who appears for the purpose of establishing the genuineness of such document. When counsel for all the parties attend the examination of any w itness whose test imony is to be ta ken on written in terrog- atories, they may consent that oral interr ogatories in addi tion to those accompanying the commission may be put to the witness. The Interpreters. consular officer taking any testimony shall require an interpreter to be present when his services are needed or are requested by any party or his attorney. SEC. 5 . If the consular officer executing any commission authorized Consular certifica- under this Act shall be satisfied, upon all the testimony taken, that lion,, a foreign document is genuine, he shall certify such document to be genuine under the seal of his office. Su ch ce rti fic ati on sh all in clu de a statement that he is not subject to disqualification under the pro- visions of section 3 (b) of this Act. He shall thereupon transmit, Tra ns mit tal of fo re ign documents, by mail, such foreign documents, together with the record of all testimony, etc. testimony ta ken and the commi ssion which has b een executed, to the clerk of the court from which such commission issued, in the manner in which his official dispatches are transmitted to the Government. The clerk receivinany executed commission shall open it and shall Inspection of docu- make any foreign-documents and record of testimony, transmitted ments. with such commission, available for inspection by the parties to the criminal action or proceeding in which such documents are to be used, and sa id parties shall be furnished copi es of such docume nts free of charge. SEC. 6. A copy of any foreign document of record or on file in a fo rei gn if iee cafee s of public office of a foreign country, or political subdivision thereof, record ; admissibility. certified by the lawful custodian of such documen t, shall be admissible in evidence in any court of the United States when authenticated by a certificate of a consular officer of the United States resident in such foreign country, under the seal of his office, certifying that th e copy of such foreign document has been certified by the lawful custodian