William Ruto, Joshua Sang to stay at The Hague longer than scheduled

Deputy President William Ruto (Right) and Radio Journalist Joshua Sang. (Photo:File/Standard)

By Felix Olick

The Hague, Netherlands: The trial of Deputy President William Ruto and Radio Journalist Joshua Arap Sang will continue till November 8 and not November 1 as had been planned.

The trial bench headed by Nigerian Judge Chile Eboe- Osuji made the decision Tuesday to allow the seventh prosecution witness who is already at The Hague to take the stand.

However, defence lawyers for both Ruto and Sang had opposed the prosecution request insisting that they had planned for some other engagements.

Ruto’s lead Counsel Karim Khan said that they had planned to carry out some investigation during the adjournment period.

So far, only six witnesses have testified since the case started on October 10.

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had been given seven months by the Trial Chamber to state her case against the two.

 “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,” the judges said before the case kicked off.

The judges had also ruled that the case against Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta will not overlap.

According to the schedule, Uhuru’s case is planned to kick off on November 12.

But the president has already requested the judges to push his trial to 12 February 2014.