Kenyatta requested Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to say if she will be relying on the two witnesses including witness number 4/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 16 – Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to disclose the identity of witnesses number 11 and 12.
In his application last Wednesday through his lawyers Gillian Higgins and Steven Kay, he requested Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to say if she will be relying on the two witnesses including witness number 4.
“The defence for Kenyatta seeks specific relief in respect of prosecution Witnesses 4, 11 and 12 at this stage in the proceedings. In particular, the defence requests the following: Confirmation from the prosecution that it intends to rely upon OTP-4, OTP-11 and OTP-12 at trial, and confirmation of the identities of OTP-11 and OTP-12,” the lawyers indicated.
The lawyers further want the court to supply them evidence given by the three witnesses so that they can use it to prove the innocence of their client who is accused of crimes against humanity.
The lawyers argue that it will be only fair if the defence has that information during the trials which are scheduled for April next year.
“Permit the defence to use confidential identifying information, visual and/or non-textual documents for the sole purpose of defence investigations in respect of OTP-4, OTP-11 and OTP-12; and order the prosecution to disclose to the defence evidence arising from all investigations and all other material including direct or indirect communications to date in respect of OTP-4, OTP-11 and OTP-12 which tends to show the innocence of the Accused, or which may affect the credibility of these Prosecution witnesses.”
During the confirmation of charges hearings, all the defence teams discredited prosecution witnesses and questioned why they were kept anonymous.
However the prosecution argued it was for the sake of their security.
Meanwhile, Kenya again lost its bid to acquire information from the ICC following its request to have evidence to conduct local proceedings into the post election violence.
In denying Kenya the evidence the Pre-Trial chamber last week unanimously agreed that the country could not be trusted with confidential prosecution materials.
The application had been filed on September 16, 2011 through former Attorney General Amos Wako who Rodney Dixon and Geoffrey Nixon who were contracted to act on behalf of the government.
The government in its request said it wanted to use the evidence to locally prosecute other perpetrators and also stop the ICC cases on basis that the state was prosecuting the four accused of crimes against humanity.
The government wanted all confidential un-redacted materials which have been provided by the prosecutor to the court as well as all un-redacted transcripts of proceedings during the confirmation hearing.
About The Author
