International Criminal Court rejects venue relocation request in Ruto’s case

By Standard Digital Reporter

NAIROBI, KENYA: ICC has rejected request by Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua Sang for their cases to be heard in either Kenya or Tanzania.

The court decided in a plenary session that the commencement of the trial against William Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang will take place at the seat of the Court in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The trial is scheduled to commence next week on 10 September 2013, in the presence of the accused.

The Judges, while in principle in favour of bringing the ICC’s proceedings closer to the affected communities, concluded that the proceedings in this instance shall be held at the ICC’s headquarters.

The Judges reached this conclusion after an extensive discussion that considered the observations of all the parties and participants, the ICC Registry’s assessment as well as the positions of the relevant national authorities.

In their consideration of the matter, the Judges took into account numerous factors, such as security, the cost of holding proceedings outside The Hague, the potential impact on victims and witnesses, the length of the proceedings to be held away from the seat of the Court.

Other considerations by the court included the potential impact on the perception of the Court and the impact on the Court’s ability to conduct and support other proceedings that are taking place simultaneously at the seat of the Court.

“The full plenary decision will be filed in due course,” said ICC in a statement.

Meanwhile, Judges at the International Criminal Court ( ICC) have convened a special sitting for Deputy President William Ruto to fine tune outstanding issues ahead of the commencement of his trial.

The three judge bench has scheduled a status conference on Monday, just a day before the trials against Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Arap Sang officially kicks off.

 “The status conference is convened in order to discuss any outstanding matters related to the trial preparation,” the three judge bench headed by Nigerian Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said.

After the status conference, there would be a joint press conference of the defence, the prosecution, the registry and lawyers representing victims on Monday.

Ruto’s Lead Counsel Karim Khan and ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda are among those lined up to address the media.