By VINCENT BARTOO

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has been given seven months to state her case against Deputy President William Ruto and former radio personality Joshua arap Sang.

This follows time allocations set by the judges hearing the case namely Chile Eboe-Osuji (Presiding), Olga Herrera Carbuccia and Robert Fremr.

“The total time which the Chamber grants the prosecution to complete its case is 588 hours. The prosecution case is expected to be completed within 131 days, which equates to approximately seven months,” read a decision by the court.

The judges allowed more time for the prosecutor, who had initially submitted that she would take an average of 413 hours for 46 witnesses.

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However, she reviewed this and gave a revised schedule of 294 to 300 hours for the 40 witnesses she has lined up. The judges further allowed use of videos in the case by the prosecutor, who applied to use them for “explanatory” purposes in the case.

Confidential evidence

But the Chamber directed the prosecution to furnish it, as well as other parties and legal representatives in the case, with the audio-visual material by September 5.

Ruto had requested that the Chamber first rule on the admissibility of the videos before they were used in the case.

On his part, Sang wanted the right to challenge the videos made available to the defence.

On the matter of confidential evidence, the judges asked parties in the case to make use of the Protected Information Sheets. But they said they would go into closed sessions when they considered doing so to be safer and more convenient.

To save time in the case, the judge also directed that parties confront witnesses with all questions related to their testimony when they are on the stand. This would avoid the scenario of recalling witnesses who had already taken the stand.

The decision by the judges communicated from The Hague-based court yesterday evening is part of preparations for the commencement of the case against Ruto and Sang next week Monday.