Friday, December 10, 2010

Ruto files case to block Ocampo

By JIBRIL ADAN
Eldoret North MP William Ruto has filed a case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague to force ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to conduct new investigations over the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
Ruto’s lawyer Katwa Kigen filed the application yesterday at the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC (International Criminal Court) requesting that his client’s case be heard before Ocampo presents a case against six Kenyan personalities in connection with the post election violence. The suspended Higher Education Minister also wants Ocampo stopped from applying for any summons against those he intends to accuse in connection with the 2007-2008-post election violence until the judges hear the application his lawyers filed yesterday in which he wants Moreno-Ocampo compelled to undertake new investigations without relying on previous reports.
It is Ruto’s case that he has reasons to believe Moreno-Ocampo may have formed an opinion that he is linked to the post-election violence since he had been mentioned adversely in a report prepared by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).
At the same time Moreno-Ocampo has announced that he will name the six individuals on his radar by December 15.
Reiterating a statement he made when he came to Nairobi last week, Moreno-Ocampo said he would file his case before the Christmas break.
Speaking to Reuters yesterday in New York, Moreno-Ocampo said he would not ask for any warrant of arrest against the six individuals.
The former minister’s lawyers’ say they have reason to believe that Moreno-Ocampo is relying on the KNCHR’s report, which they allege contain faulty witness testimonies, together with the Waki Commission findings. Ruto has previously alleged that the commission wrongly said he testified during its hearings.
In the application, Kigen alleges that Moreno-Ocampo failed to "conduct his own independent, fair and impartial investigations as required by the law, and instead continues to rely on and publicly defend the reports compiled by others"
The lawyer claims Moreno-Ocampo failed to comply with Article 54(1) of the Rome Statute by not investigating both incriminating and exonerating evidence equally.
He alleges the prosecutor broke that provision when he refused to investigate the truth of claims made under oath to the effect that "witnesses were induced, coached or compromised to implicate Hon Ruto with the post election violence of 2007-2008".
Investigators status
Instead, the lawyer claims in the application that "the Prosecutor disowned" the witnesses in question rather than interrogating them together with those Ruto alleges "coached" them.
In the application, Ruto says there is no way Moreno-Ocampo could have conducted his own investigations.
"The agreement between the ICC and the Kenya Government granting the ICC investigators status, immunities and privileges and authorising them to operate in Kenya, was signed in September 2010 yet from as far back as April 2010, the prosecutor had started writing to "suspects" including the Ruto and requiring them to explain what they know about the post-election violence of 2007-2008" says the application.
Even though Moreno-Ocampo wrote to Ruto in April to ask him to share information with the ICC, the lawyer says the prosecutor refused to say what allegations he had received against him.
By doing so, the lawyer claims, Moreno-Ocampo was prejudicing Ruto’s right under Article 55(2) of the Rome Statute as a person who has been interviewed by the prosecutor, and his right to be presumed innocent provided for under Article 66 of the statute.
Contested contents
Ruto wants Moreno-Ocampo to conduct new investigations without relying on previous reports whose contents are already contested.
He also wants the judges to supervise the investigations and restrain the prosecutor from applying for any summons to appear or warrants of arrests with respect to Kenya’s post-election violence, before the application he filed is heard and determined.
Ruto’s application becomes the second one to be filed at The Hague to oppose Moreno-Ocampo.
Last week nine security officials who were in charge at various post-election hotspots filed a case at the Pre-Trial Chamber seeking to stop ICC investigators from taking their testimonies unless they received assurances from the judges that they would not be prosecuted by the ICC.
On Tuesday, Justice Kalpana Rawal who was appointed to assist the ICC get testimonies from the officials, said she would embark on the exercise on December 20.
Kigen was due to fly back to the country last night.

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