ICC president among judges to hear referral case

By Evelyn KwambokaThe International Criminal Court President Sang-Hyun Song will sit in a Bench to hear the Government's appeal to refer cases against the 'Ocampo Six' to the country.
The appeal filed under the Rome Statute’s Article 82 (1) (a) will be the first ever to be handled by the court since its establishment in 2003.
The president and his team will have the right to overturn or uphold the decision made by Pre-Trial Chamber II.
Other judges in the Bench are the head of ICC Appeals Division, Justice Anita Usacka, Akua Kuenyehia, Daniel David Ntanda Nsereko, and Erkki Korurula. Two foreign lawyers hired by the Government on Monday filed the appeal papers at the ICC registry at The Hague, few hours before the time set by Pre-Trial Chamber II lapsed.
This was after the ruling by Pre-Trial Chamber II, that the case was admissible catching the Government off guard. The announcement forced General Amos Wako and the foreign lawyers to go back to a drawing board.
Wako, Sir Geoffrey Nice and Rodney Dixon now claim that the chamber presided over by Judge Ekatrina Trendafilova’s, did not hear their evidence.
"The refusal by the Pre-Trial Chamber to hold a status conference in which the need for an oral hearing could have been established and in due course to hold such an oral hearing has had serious consequences affecting the validity and integrity of the determination made about admissibility," says Nice.
The Government had lined up Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere and Ms Alice Ondieki of the Witness Protection Unit. Nice claims refusal by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to share his evidence with the Government has resulted in his client being without details that might be of great importance to its case.
The suspects are Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North Mp William Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, Postmaster General Hussein Ali and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang. Kenya’s intentions to withdraw from the ICC have also played to its disadvantage. However, Nice says it is Parliament not the Government, which attempted to withdraw the country from the Rome Statute, which established the court.