{UAH} ICC orders Kenya to reply on evidence

ICC orders Kenya to reply on evidence

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY FRANCIS MUREITHI

APPLICATION: ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

The ICC judges have directed the Kenya government to respond to submissions by the court's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that it has not been cooperating with her office on President Uhuru Kenyatta's case.

ICC judges Judge Kuniko Ozaki, Judge Robert Fremr and Chile Eboe-Osuji directed the government to respond by January 8, 2014.

"The Chamber hereby invites the competent authorities of the Republic of Kenya to submit their observations on the Application, if any, no later than 8 January 2014," the judges directed in a ruling made public last evening.

The judges also directed the ICC registry to also submit its position on whether the government refused to cooperate with the prosecutor on Kenyatta's case.

On December 2, Bensouda filed an application with the court saying that the government had failed to comply with a request she had made in April last year asking for the financial and other records of Uhuru.

"These records are relevant to critical issues in this case, and may shed light on the scope of the accused's conduct, including the allegation that he financed the crimes with which he is charged," she said at the time.

She said all previous attempts by her office to secure the records had been exhausted. "For 19 months, the OTP's repeated requests have been met with obfuscation and intransigence. Now, just over two months before the start of trial, the Accused's financial records remain outstanding. The net effect of the GoK's inaction has been to limit the body of evidence available to the Chamber, hindering its fact-finding function and ability to determine the truth. It has also limited the OTP's ability to investigate all the facts in this case," she said in her application early this month.

She said the government had not updated her office about any concrete steps it had taken to obtain the outstanding records and neither had it provided any specific justification as to why it had yet to provide the information requested other than offering "a broad-brush explanation on 10 June 2013 that "information must be collated from various sources within and outside the government" and "consent [obtained] from relevant individuals" was required."

Apart from finding the government "non-compliant" she wants the judges to refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties and also reclassify the application as public.

- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-146708/icc-orders-kenya-reply-evidence#sthash.FmSWxLjD.dpuf

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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