Ocampo names Kenya chaos suspects

Next steps

• The six expected to inform the Pre-Trial Chamber II their readiness to appear before the ICC judges.

• The three-judge bench will weigh the merits of Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s application and could reject the request to issue a summons to appear, approve it or transform it into an arrest warrant. The Prosecutor expects this to happen in the first part of 2011.

• If the chamber agrees with Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s request, the individuals identified will be expected to go to The Hague to make their initial appearance before the judges.

• A public hearing to confirm the charges will be held.

• It is at this stage where the judges review the evidence and decide whether it is enough to proceed to trial. The six individuals can be represented by their lawyers. The prosecutor expects this will happen in the second part of 2011 or the beginning of 2012.

• The Pre-Trial Chamber II consisting of judges Hans-Peter Kaul, Ekaterina Trendafilova and Cuno Tarfusser will make a decision to confirm the charges and send the case to trial, amend or reject the charges.

• Mr Moreno-Ocampo expects that the trial of the six would begin in the second part of 2012 or early 2013.

“I wait to see what the judiciary of the ICC make of the Prosecutor’s application. Hopefully they will dismiss his application,” he stated. 

“In the event that they do decide to issue summons, I will voluntarily attend The Hague and respect any request the judges of the ICC have for me."

The documents he gave the court included the names of the six, the crimes they are alleged to have committed and the penalty that he will be asking for.

A three-judge bench will now evaluate the two 80-page bundles of documents and decide whether he can proceed and file the charges he has identified.

Two weeks ago, Mr Moreno-Ocampo had promised to name the suspects during an address to a meeting of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation, convened by the Panel of Eminent African Personalities chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Upper Hill, Nairobi.

The prosecutor said the cases had been strengthened by new evidence his team had gathered, in addition to the leads contained in the Waki Commission and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reports.

“Since last March, when the judges issued an authorisation, my office has been investigating post electoral violence. We collected new evidence, including testimonies, videos and documents. We are not going to discuss our evidence in the media. We will do it in court,” he said.

He said the Waki Commission and the KNCHR reports were key in the investigations into the post election chaos but they only provided the background on which his team based its inquiries.

Additional reporting by Peter Leftie