On December 13, 2013, Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, according to the press release, unanimously ordered that the proceedings in the Prosecutor v. Šešelj case “would resume from the point after the closing arguments, and move into the deliberations phase as soon as Judge Niang has familiarized himself with the file.”  The Chamber ruled that “a new judge is able to assess witness testimony given in his absence through other means, including video recordings,” and therefore that “Judge Niang will be . . . able to evaluate the credibility of witnesses heard during the proceedings . . . and familiarise himself with the record of the proceedings to a satisfactory degree.”  The decision follows the disqualification of Judge Frederik Harhoff from the Šešelj bench in August 2013.