No Ocampo witnesses during Hague September hearings

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will not call any witnesses during September’s confirmation of charges hearings for six Kenyan post-election violence suspects.

The prosecutor said that not calling live witnesses would allow the cases to be handled in a speedy manner by the court.

He was responding to an order by the Pre-Trial Chamber that the parties to the cases justify why they need to call live witnesses.
Instead, the prosecutor plans to use witness statements against the suspects.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo also plans to use evidence contained in 7,800 pages of witness statements, media reports and human rights groups’ reports.

“In an effort to conduct the hearings in the most efficient and expeditious manner, and in light of the ongoing and persistent concerns related to the security in Kenya, the prosecution indicates that it does not intend to call any live witnesses at the confirmation of charges hearings,” he said.

The prosecutor had earlier indicated that he would call 20 witnesses to testify against William Ruto, Henry Kosgey, Joshua Sang, Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura and Hussein Ali. The hearings for Mr Ruto, Mr Kosgey and Mr Sang’s charges will be on September 1 while those of Mr Uhuru, Mr Muthaura and Mr Ali will be on September 27.

Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova had told the parties that although oral testimony is permitted, the evidentiary debate at the confirmation of charges hearing can be based on witnesses’ written statements.

The defence teams will now have to seek strategies to use in fighting the witness statements without knowing who they are.

The six suspects have indicated that they will be calling up witnesses but after they have known what evidence the prosecutor has.

Mr Ruto, Mr Kosgey and Mr Sang were scheduled to receive the last batch of evidence from the prosecutor on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Mr Sang’s lawyer Kemboy Bosek said that they are yet to receive any communication on the evidence from their support teams at The Hague.

A confirmation of charges hearing is held to determine if there is sufficient evidence to believe a suspect committed the crimes he is charged with and if the case should go to trial.

Meanwhile, Mr Moreno-Ocampo will have to prove that two lawyers who have joined Mr Muthaura’s defence team were privy to information on his case before they left the ICC.

Mr Muthaura’s defence has hired Shyamala Alagendra and Essa Faal who formerly worked for Mr Moreno-Ocampo.

An international crimes lawyer who could not be named as he is working closely with the defence in the Kenyan cases said the Rome Statutes provide that the Chamber will be the arbiter in case such objections are raised.

“It is therefore imperative that the Prosecution provides evidence that indeed Mr Faal was privy to confidential information that should not be within the knowledge of the Defence.

It should be noted that the Prosecution has a protocol that prevents staff members sharing confidential information with others within the prosecution who are involved in different cases,” the lawyer said.

He added that in a previous decision, the Trial Chamber refused to invalidate Mr Nick Kauffman’s appointment in Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Legal team after he had left the Prosecution.