NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 14 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) will rule on Monday, January 23 whether the six Kenyan post election violence suspects will be committed to full trial.
Sources at the ICC told Capital News on Saturday that the ruling will be made public at 1400hrs Hague time.
Usually they post such rulings on their website but this will be the first time the war crimes court will hold a formal session to publicly read out a ruling at the end of confirmation of charges hearings.
“The last day the ruling was expected was on Saturday, January 21 but since the day falls on a weekend it was pushed to Monday,” a source familiar with the ICC diary told us in confidence.
However, ICC Outreach Programme Officer Maria Kamara told Capital News that the The Hague based court was yet to issue a media advisory on the ruling date.
“The advisory will inform how business will be conducted on the day the announcement will be made taking into account that there are two cases,” she said on phone.
“The suspects are not required to be present, they will be notified of the decision by their lawyers.”
During the ruling, the presiding judge at the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II Ekaterina Trendafilova and her colleagues Hans Peter-Kaul and Cuno Tarfusser will determine whether the prosecutor presented sufficient evidence for the charges to be confirmed.
In the first case, MPs William Ruto, Henry Kosgey and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang are facing three counts each of murder, forcible transfer of population and persecution of perceived supporters of President Mwai Kibaki after the 2007 general election.
Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and Postmaster General Hussein Ali, are facing five charges each for murder, rape, forcible transfer of population, persecution and other inhumane acts during the 2008 post election violence that left 1,333 people dead and 350, 000 others displaced.
According to International Lawyer Dr Godfrey Musila, the judges can drop or confirm all the charges for all the six suspects or drop some charges for some suspects.
The Prosecutor can also be asked to amend his evidence.
If charges are confirmed, the Pre-Trial Chamber will ask the ICC Presidency to constitute a trail chamber that will try the Kenyan suspects.
According to Dr Musila the trial can start after two or three months depending on court space.
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