20101216
africanews

The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has confirmed that the trial of the six post-election violence key suspects could begin in May next year - if the judges accept to issue summonses.

"I started this process by asking for summons for these individuals to appear before the judges. My role was to collect the evidence, and I did that. Secondly I was to identify suspects. I have done that as well. Now it is upon the judges to decide, based on the evidence, when to issue summons.

"Once the summonses are issued and if the suspects agree to come to the Hague voluntarily, we could do that in May next year," Ocampo told BBC's Newshour programme.

Ocampo has issued applications to the Pre-Trial Chamber seeking summonses for Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, suspended Higher Education minister William Ruto, Industrialization minister Henry Kosgey, Kass FM presenter Joshua arap Sang, and former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali. (Full text of the applications are to be found in an eight-page pullout inside today's Star).

All six suspects have insisted on their innocence and promised to appear before ICC once the summonses are issued.

The ICC Registrar on Thursday advised the Star that it intends to act expeditiously on the Kenyan case but it does not have time limits.

Time-limit

"There is no time-limit within which the Chamber must decide on the Prosecutor's applications for summonses to appear against the six persons. The Chamber will act expeditiously taking into consideration the amount of documents to be analysed," said the Registrar's statement.

The Registrar said the Chamber shall carefully review Ocampo's evidence and will issue warrants of arrest or summons(es) if it is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes alleged were committed.

"If the Chamber finds that the evidence provided by the Prosecutor is not sufficient to meet the reasonable grounds standard, it shall decline to issue either warrants of arrest or summons(es) to appear. The Prosecutor may thereafter re-apply if he managed to secure new evidence in order to meet the reasonable grounds standard," said the ICC Registrar.

Yesterday in Parliament Prime Minister Raila Odinga came out fighting and insisted he never intervened to have anyone included on Ocampo's list of suspects.

Raila said it was wrong for some MPs to claim the ICC process had been politicised to remove certain individuals from the 2012 presidential race.

The PM issued a statement in Parliament dismissing as gossip and cheap rumours the accusation by Joshua Kuttuny (Cherangany) that he had cajoled Kibaki to sign the agreement with ICC last September.

Cooperation

In the agreement, Kenya committed itself to fully cooperate with the ICC in prosecuting the suspects of the post-election violence. Raila is ODM party leader, Industrialization minister Henry Kosgey is chairman while William Ruto is still second deputy party leader.

"I am not the one who prepared the list, that is a question that should be directed to Moreno Ocampo not Raila Odinga," said the PM when asked why some names are on the list and others are not.

MPs mainly from Rift Valley and Central have been accusing Raila of politicising the ICC process to remove Uhuru and Ruto from the 2012 race.

Raila said the same people who had shouted "don't be vague, go for Hague" were the ones now claiming some individuals were being fixed for political reasons.

Raila reminded the House that he and Kibaki had personally championed the Bill for a local tribunal but it was rejected by the MPs.

"We did not invite Ocampo here, neither did Ocampo invite himself here. He came here due to our failure to set up a local tribunal," said Raila.

He reminded MPs that Chief Mediator and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had pleaded with them to establish a local tribunal advising that ICC was not the best option.
Charles Keter (Belgut) demanded to know if Raila was happy that the three on Ocampo's list from ODM were all Kalenjin.

Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthama asked Raila why he was not on Ocampo's list.

"How come the person who issued instructions to his people to demonstrate saying that his votes had been stolen is not in the list? This is an issue we want to be looked at extensively," said Muthama.