ICC judge deals Ocampo another blow

BY BERNARD MOMANYI

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null 1/1 NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 10 - ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has lost an opportunity to file submissions on the request by 59 victims who have applied to appear before the court to raise their concerns on what they underwent during Kenya's deadliest poll violence. Presiding Judge at the Pre-trial Chamber II Ekaterina Trendafilova had asked all parties concerned to file submissions on the victims' application soon after they sent their petition to the court. But Mr Ocampo failed to meet the deadline set by the court and filed a request seeking an extension of time, within which his office should be allowed file the submissions. "On 7 June 2011, the Chamber was notified of the Prosecutor's Request in which he seeks to be granted extension of time on an exceptional basis arguing that his team applied the standard three-week deadline pursuant to regulation 34 of the Regulations of the Court.," the ICC states in part. In asking for the extension of time, the Prosecutor had argued that "disclosure obligations and a variety of filings" make it "difficult, if not impossible, to meet all deadlines when an unexpected event intervenes." Thus the single judge ruled that: "The Prosecutor has failed to advance any convincing justification for lodging his request for extension of time four days after the expiry of the deadline." Justice Ekaterina reprimanded the Prosecutor, saying it was up to him to organise his office so as to meet deadlines issued by the court. "It is essential that the Prosecutor organises his office in a way that it remains functional at any time, even in the absence of individual members of the prosecutor's team," she ruled. The ruling further stated that the Single Judge's deadline policy set up in the 30 March 2011 Decision was known to the Prosecutor for more than two months and a "system should have been established within his office to keep track with time limits established by the Chamber." "The Prosecutor's Request makes clear that the two-week deadline established by the 30 March 2011 Decision was simply disregarded or overlooked," Justice Trendafilova observed. She said invoking the Prosecutor's other statutory obligations equally cannot serve as a justification for not keeping track with time limits. In this regard, the Single Judge deems it desirable that the Prosecutor revisit best practices for his office. Follow us on TWITTER @CapitalFM_Kenya

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