Ruto lawyers meet ICC staff over logistics

Eldoret North MP Wiliam Ruto’s lawyers Monday met with staff from the International Criminal Court registry to organise logistics and issues related to security and documentation.

On Tuesday, they are scheduled to meet officials from the Office of Public Counsel for the Defence, which is mandated to protect the rights of defence teams at early stages of an investigation.

The office also supports indigent suspects either by providing legal advice or appearing before judges on specific issues.

The Ruto team, which arrived at the court’s base on Monday, held two meetings in preparation of their client’s initial appearance on Thursday.

Lawyer Kithure Kindiki, who is leading the team told the Nation from The Netherlands that they also met officials from prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s office.

“We will have another meeting with officials at Office of Public Counsel for the Defence and the court management on issues relating to translation and interpretation as well as other technical meetings as we prepare for the court session,” he said Monday. 

“We are ready for the appearance and are working to ensure that everything goes right."

The Kindiki group constituting British lawyer David Hooper, Kioko Kilukumi and Katwa Kigen was the first to land at The Hague.

They were joined on Tuesday by Evans Monari and Gershom Otachi for former police commissioner Hussein Ali and Ken Ogeto, counsel for head of Public Service Francis Muthaura.

“We are here to ensure that Ambassador Muthaura’s rights as an innocent and law-abiding Kenyan citizen are respected by both the Dutch government and the international court as stipulated in the Rome Statute,” Mr Ogeto told the Nation on arrival  in the Dutch city.

Besides Mr Ogeto, Mr Muthaura is represented by British lawyer Karim Ahmad Khan who in 1996 led the defence for former Liberian  President Samuel Taylor defence at the Special  Court for Sierra Leone.

Mr Ruto, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey, Mr Muthaura, Maj-Gen Hussein Ali and radio journalist Joshua arap sang have been summoned to make their initial appearance before the court.

Mr Kosgey, Mr Ruto and Mr Sang will appear before Pre-Trial Chamber II on Thursday in ICC Courtroom I to be followed by  the Kenyatta group on  Friday.

The appearance is being held in order to verify the identity of the suspects and to ensure that they have been informed of the crimes which they are alleged to have committed as well as of their rights under the Rome Statute.

The prosecutor has persuaded the court that there are grounds to believe that the six bear the greatest responsibility for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 2007-08 post-election violence.