Kenya's Appelate judge to preside over ICC Darfur case

By Lucianne Limo

Former appellate judge Joyce Aluoch has been appointed to preside over the Darfur case at the International Criminal Court.

According to the ICC website,the Presidency of ICC constituted Trial Chamber IV composed of Judges Fatoumata Dembele Diarra, Joyce Aluoch and Silvia Femandez de Gurmendi.

Justice Aluoch was appointed by her peers to be the lead judge in the case of The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus.

The situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC by United Nations Security Council resolution 1593 on March 31, 2005, under article 13(b) of the Rome Statute.

Justice Aluoch was appointed to the ICC in January 2009.

On March 7,the pre trial Pre-Trial Chamber I unanimously decided to confirm the charges of war crimes brought by the ICC’s Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo against the duo.

Pre-Trial Chamber I found substantial grounds to believe that Abdallah Banda and Saleh Jerbo are criminally responsible as co-perpetrators for three war crimes.

They are accused of violence to life and attempted violence to life; intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units and vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission and pillaging.

These crimes were allegedly committed during an attack led by Abdallah Banda and Saleh Jerbo and other commanders and directed against the compound of the African Union Mission in Sudan at Haskanita on the evening of September 29 2007.

The Chamber found substantial grounds to believe that the attack was directed to personnel, installations, material, units and vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations which were entitled to the protection afforded to civilians and civilian objects.