Hague threat on poll violence ‘premature’

• Kenya should act alone before the ICC steps in, says don

The Hague is acting prematurely in threatening to bring charges against suspected organisers of the post-election violence, the American professor challenging the International Criminal Court’s right to prosecute cases has said.

Prof Max Hilaire, who teaches politics at Morgan State University in Baltimore, last week joined a Californian lawyer in filing a legal brief that seeks to block the ICC probe.

The two are seeking to stop Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo from taking over the post-election violence case.

However, Kenya immediately asked them to stop the application, which could delay the pre-trial chamber’s ruling.

Attorney General Amos Wako, who is currently out of the country, said he was not aware of the development.

The ICC will have to respond formally to the brief, but it is not clear when a ruling will be made, Prof Hilaire said in an interview with the Nation.

The objections he and Mr William Cohn made centre on “procedural” issues, he said.

“I do not condone what was done in Kenya and I would like to see justice done.

“There is no doubt some in government are responsible for what took place, and they may be shielding themselves by trying to prevent Kenya from initiating its own prosecutions,” said the professor.

But, he added, it is not consistent with the ICC statute for it to intervene in Kenya “until the government has had the opportunity to act on its own”.

The court is also acting without authorisation from the United Nations Security Council, according to Prof Hilaire.

He further suggested that chief mediator Kofi Annan may have overstepped his mandate by furnishing the ICC with a list of suspected perpetrators, instead of presenting it to the African Union.

Prof Hilaire, a US citizen of Caribbean descent, says he has no direct connection to Kenya. Mr Cohn, who is travelling in Europe, did not respond to requests for comments.

CLS & Associates, a Washington lobbying firm retained by the Kenyan government, says it had no involvement in the Hilaire-Cohn legal brief.

The application by the two Americans came a week after a Brussels-based lawyers lobby raised similar objections.