International Criminal Court releases work plan for William Ruto’s trial

By Francis Ngige

Nairobi, Kenya: The judges trying Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua arap Sang at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have released an intensive work plan for the case scheduled to begin on September 10.

With just over three weeks to the trial, the ICC Trial Chamber V released the timelines and procedures to be followed.

In a schedule released yesterday, Judges Chile Eboe-Osuji, Olga Herrera Carbuccia and Robert Fremr directed the prosecution to update the list of witnesses, deleting the names of those who have withdrawn their testimony.

The judges also told ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to reduce the time she intended to present her case against Mr Ruto and Mr Sang.

They noted that the 413 hours that the prosecution needed to conduct examination-in-chief of the its 46 witnesses “are excessive and needed to be reviewed”.

The bench was giving directions yesterday after parties in the suit made submissions on the conduct of the proceedings.

And with the rules of engagement now in place, it remains to be seen how long Mr Ruto and his co-accused will be in Netherlands attending to the trial.

Ruto has already won a reprieve to skip some of the sittings of the trial as directed by the court. But Bensouda has already shown her intent to appeal against a ruling excusing Ruto from being physically present at The Hague for all the sessions.

The chamber had earlier ruled, by majority, that the DP would only be required at the court during key sessions.

President Uhuru Kenyatta is also expected to face trial at the court beginning November 12.

While giving the directions yesterday, the chamber said the issue of reduction of time would be discussed during the next status conference to be held before the trial commences.

Opening a possibility of the trial court visiting the 2007/2008 post-election violence scenes, the court directed that parties seeking to have them visit any site should file an application before the conclusion of the defence case.

“If a party considers that a site visit should take place prior to the defence case, it shall file its application no later than two working days after the end of the prosecution case,” the judges ruled.

Each of the parties will be given two hours to make opening statements with the prosecution expected to go first before the representative of the victims.

Ruto’s defence team will then make its opening statement before Sang concludes.

After the close of the prosecution case, the judges said they would allow the defence to submit on whether the accused have a case to answer.

“The Chamber will in due course give reasons for permitting this manner of procedure and also give further guidance,” the judges ruled.

The judges directed parties involved in the trial to make applications for protective measures in collaboration with Victims and Witness Unit.