Ocampo: I have solid evidence against six Kenyan suspects

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Photo/ FILE

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo says he has lined up insider witnesses who will prove the case against all six suspects accused of crimes against humanity in The Hague.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said celebrations in the defence camps due to a perception that he did not conduct sufficient investigations were premature.

The prosecutor said he had adopted a deliberate strategy of holding back some of his most crucial pieces of evidence to protect witnesses.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said the bulk of his witnesses were insider witnesses or what he called “crime-based witnesses”. These are individuals who may have been part of the groups that committed the crimes but later decided to assist the prosecution. Others may be individuals that held positions within the government or other party organs but later decided to switch sides and work with the prosecution.

The prosecutor said it would have been an error to expose these individuals at this stage because that would effectively have opened them to the danger of reprisals in case the charges are dismissed at the pre-trial stage.

“The prosecution does not want to protect individuals for only two years and then let them go,” he said.

Robust presentations

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said his reliance on some public sources of information at the pre-trial stage would give way to a more robust presentation of evidence including by individuals with direct knowledge of the case.

“We have great evidence. This includes details of meetings that planned the attacks. It is understandable (some think we have not produced enough evidence). But the crime based witnesses will come in later. For national investigations you come in first with crime-based witnesses and later rely on other sources. Here we have decided to do it the other way round.”

The defence team of Eldoret North MP William Ruto was particularly seen as having concentrated their strategy on illustrating their view that Mr Moreno-Ocampo did not conduct sufficient investigations and lacked a case meriting consideration at full trial stage.

The prosecutor said this strategy would be shown to be flawed. He said he had witnesses willing to demonstrate that all six suspects participated in the violence.

In the case of Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Postmaster general Hussein Ali, Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he would prove in the course of the pre-trial hearings that they participated in planning the violence.

He spoke of two meetings at State House – on December 30, 2007 and January 3, 2008 where the plan to attack Naivasha was conceived and planned.

“In both cases we have crime based witnesses and insider witnesses. It is easy to get them because there were very many of them. Critical insider witnesses were all protected.”

State House

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said his team would prove that a meeting involving the Mungiki was convened in State House on December 30. He said on this occasion, Mr Muthaura did not speak but Mr Kenyatta introduced the militants to him and said it was important to stage retaliatory attacks in Naivasha.

He says that Mr Muthaura spoke at the second meeting and said that the state would facilitate those attacks. At the suggestion of a Mungiki leader who wanted to know whether the police would arrest them, Mr Muthaura is said to have called Mr Ali and asked him to assure the attackers safe passage. The defence strongly rejects these accusations.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he hoped the ICC’s action in Kenya would help to halt the cyclical outbreaks of violence that have claimed thousands of lives around election time since 1992.

“We hope our intervention in Kenya will help to create a new environment that creates a new rule that people cannot use violence to gain or retain power,” he said.