By ALLY JAMAH
Nairobi,Kenya: The International Criminal Court (ICC) judges have ruled that the trial of Deputy President William Ruto will open in The Hague, Netherlands.
The trial is scheduled to commence on September 10, 2013, in the presence of the accused, said a statement by the court.
“After carefully considering the arguments both in favour of and against holding the opening statements in the case in Nairobi or Arusha, the judges did not reach the required two-thirds majority necessary for a decision to change the seat of the Court. The opening statements of the trial will therefore be held in The Hague,” a statement from the ICC read.
Disclosure
Meanwhile ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has requested judges to authorise continued non-disclosure of identities of individuals who provided crucial information during investigations.
The prosecutor said that although the individuals will not be called to testify during the trial stage, disclosing their identities would place their security at great risk.
This came after the lawyers of Deputy President Wlliam Ruto and former radio journalist Joshua Sang requested full disclosure of the screening notes used by the office of the prosecutor in handling the individuals in questions detailing their allegations and identities.
The Prosecutor had undertaken to make available notes of all witnesses to appear in trial as well as extracts of non-trial witnesses without disclosing their identities.
“All individuals that the prosecution contacted, have expressed genuinely-held serious concerns for their personal security or their families in Kenya were their identities to be disclosed to the accused,” said Ms Bensouda in her application to the judges.
“Disclosure of their identities now would expose them to unnecessary risk, which outweighs the low probative value of the information contained in their screening notes. There is no reason to believe that the value of this insignificant information to the Defence will be improved by the disclosure of the identities of the sources,” she said.
She said the individuals are likely to still be perceived as having cooperated with the ICC and of having “betrayed” their communities or the accused. She warned that should their identities be disclosed, they might face retributive attacks from supporters of the accused.
By Standard Digital Reporter
Nairobi, Kenya: The International Criminal Court (ICC) Judges have rejected the joint defence request to hold trials against Deputy President William Ruto and former radio journalist Joshua Sang in Kenya or in Tanzania.
"The Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have decided, in a plenary session, that the commencement of the trial against William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang will take place at the seat of the Court in The Hague, the Netherlands,” read a statement by ICC.
The trial is scheduled to commence on 10 September 2013, in the presence of the accused.
The Judges decided that the proceedings in this instance shall be held at the ICC’s headquarters.
The recommendation would see the ICC proceedings brought closer to the affected communities.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose trial is set to begin on November 12, has made a similar request but judges are yet to make a ruling.
The African Union (AU) has been pressuring the ICC to drop the charges against Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto, saying it was being racist in only prosecuting cases from Africa.
The AU had said that Kenya has a credible Judiciary capable of hearing and determining the cases impartially and expeditiously.
The ICC has refused to drop the charges, arguing that the court could not be swayed by political decisions.
