THREE trial chamber women judges will most likely to be named to determine the fate of the six Kenyan post election violence suspects if charges against them are confirmed.
The three, Elizabeth Benito of Costa Rica, Christine Van den Wyngaert of Blegium and Kuniko Ozaki of Japan, will most likely constitute the three judges bench. The terms of the other trial judges end in March next year.
Kenya’s own Justice Joyce Aluoch serves in the same chamber but will most certainly disqualify herself from the case not to be seen to take sides.
The presiding judge of the division who ordinarily would be in the bench is Sir Adrian Fulford of United Kingdom, formerly a High Court judge in England. His term also ends in March next year.
The term of Fatoumata Diarra from Mali, a former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and now the first vice-president of the ICC ends in March also.
And so is the term of Judge Elizabeth Benito of Costa Rica who was a judge a the ICTY, minister of justice in Costa Rica as well the country’s vice-president prior to joining ICC.
The fourth judge is Rene Blattmann from Bolivia whose six-year term ended in 2009 but has had to stay on to dispense with the Thomas Lubanga trial in which he has been involved in. “A judge assigned to a Trial or Appeals Chamber in accordance with Article 39 shall continue in office to complete any trial or appeal the hearing of which has already commenced before that Chamber,” according to the Rome Statute.
Cotte joined the court in January 2008 and was formerly the president of the criminal chamber of France’s Supreme Court. Wyngaert who joined the court in 2009 was a professor at law. She has also served as a judge in ICTY as well as International Court of Justice. Judge Ozaki is the newest of the three having joined the court last year. She is formerly a professor at law in Japan.
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