Refusal to appear or testify.
Article 23
ART. 23. Refusal to appear or testify.—Every person not subject to military law who, being duly subpoenaed to appear as a witness before any military court, commission, court of inquiry, or board, or before any officer, military or civil, designated to take a deposition to- be read in evidence before such court, commission, court of inquiry, or board, willfully neglects or refuses to appear, or refuses to qualify as a witness, or testify, or produce documentary evidence which such person may have been legally subpoenaed to produce, shall be deemed guilty of contempt, for which such person shall be punished on information in the Court of First Instance of the Province or city where the subpoena is issued, jurisdiction being hereby conferred upon such courts for such purpose and it shall be the duty of the city fiscal or city attorney or provincial fiscal, on the certification of the facts to him by the military court, commission, court of inquiry, or board, to file an information against and prosecute the person so offending in the manner provided in sections two hundred and thirty-three and following of Act Numbered One hundred and ninety, and the punishment of such person, on conviction, shall be that provided in sections two hundred and thirty-six and two hundred and thirty-seven of the aforesaid Act: Prowled, That reasonable traveling expenses be allowed to indigent witnesses, such amounts to be paid out of the appropriation of the Army.