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Monari said they are ready to defend Ali over further charges/FILE

Kenya

Ali’s lawyer says Ocampo is becoming frantic

Monari said they are ready to defend Ali over further charges/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 29 – Lawyer Evans Monari has termed reported plans by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to introduce fresh charges against former police Commissioner Hussein Ali relating to killings by the police in Kisumu and Kibera in 2008 as “a desperate attempt to salvage a lost case.”

Monari told Capital News that the charges were initially thrown out so that the International Criminal Court prosecutor could conduct fresh investigations and it was unlikely that Ocampo would come up with different facts.

Monari affirmed that defence team of the former Police Commissioner was ready to defend their client if the prosecutor brought fresh charges against him for confirmation by the court.

Monari said: “This is a prosecutor who is crying wolf… he presented his evidence with regard to Kisumu and Kibera which was thrown out. He should have had proper investigations at first, not when he brings the charges afresh.”

“All he can do is re-characterise offences but he cannot bring new charges especially when the chamber already said that he did not have sufficient evidence,” Monari said.

He argued that although Ali’s legal team was yet to receive communication from the prosecutor of his intent, there was no State policy for the police to kill or use excessive force against protesters.

“The State itself has already prosecuted security officers who overstepped their mandate in Kisumu and Kibera. To say that there was State policy is serious, even the government should come out blazing in defence of itself,” he said.

He maintained high hopes that the outcome of the confirmation of charges hearings would vindicate the role of the former Police Commissioner in the post election chaos.

“The defence was able to prove that the prosecutor’s case was moot, and that no proper investigations were carried out. We can only hope and trust that the chamber will see it our way emphasised,” Monari said adding that there was bound to be an appeal from either the prosecution and defence teams after the judgment on whether or not to confirm the cases.

Latest reports suggest that the prosecutor plans to file fresh charges against Ali, Civil Service Chief Francis Muthaura and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta for being co-perpetrators in the commission of crimes against ODM supporters in the two areas where about 60 people were killed.

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Already, campo wants Kenyatta, Muthaura and Ali charged with five counts of crimes against humanity in the second Kenya case.

The ICC prosecutor alleges the three were the masterminds of, or contributed in a huge way to the killing of non-Kikuyus in Nakuru and Naivasha in late January 2008 in retaliation for the killing of Kikuyus earlier that month in the northern part of the Rift Valley.

He claims the Mungiki criminal gang carried out the killings and the police allowed them to commit the crimes.

The prosecutor’s first case of crimes against humanity has Eldoret North MP William Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang as suspects.

All the six are expected to know the fate of their cases in January after the ICC announced that it would issue a decision whether to decline or confirm charges in both Kenyan cases on the same date.

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