R v Aristizabal Serna

The defendant, Aristizabal Serna, was charged alongside co-offenders on a single indictment. After pleading guilty, Serna was sentenced, yet subsequently, the prosecution subpoenaed him for a pre-trial application. This application was intended to ascertain whether and what evidence Serna could provide in the trial of his co-offenders. During this pre-trial hearing, Serna refused to be sworn or affirmed, and he declined to answer questions or participate in the proceedings. The prosecution then issued an order to show cause as to why Serna should not be punished for contempt of the court.

The primary legal issues the court had to address were whether a pre-trial application could be employed by the prosecution to determine if a defendant would testify at trial, and whether Serna's refusal to participate in the pre-trial hearing constituted contempt of the court. Additionally, the court needed to decide whether Serna provided valid reasons for not being punished for contempt.

The court ruled that the prosecution could use a pre-trial application to assess if a defendant would give evidence at trial. The court found that Serna's refusal to be sworn, to answer questions, and to participate in the proceedings constituted contempt of the court. Despite Serna's argument that his silence was protected by his right to silence, the court determined that this did not exempt him from complying with the court's order to participate in the pre-trial hearing. As a result, the court found that Serna had not shown cause as to why he should not be punished for contempt. The court ordered Serna to serve a sentence of six months imprisonment, to run concurrently with his existing sentence.