ICC Judge okay with lawyer on Muthaura team

By Evelyn kwamboka

The International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s bid to stop a lawyer who defected from his camp from representing one of the post-election violence suspects has flopped.

Mr Essa Faal will now fully represent Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura in battling charges of crimes against humanity.

However, Pre-Trial Chamber II judge Ekaterina Trendafilova cautioned that Muthaura would lose the lawyer if it comes out during proceedings that he was privy to confidential information touching on the case.

"The present decision should not be perceived as a carte blanche encouraging practices that might compromise the interest of justice in the future," judge Trendafilova said.

The judge said the lawyer never accessed confidential documents concerning the case, even though he was on the notification list of confidential filings.

Privy to information

In his document filed at the court on July 1, Ocampo had argued that the lawyer, who worked in the ICC’s prosecution section, was privy to information on the Kenyan case.

He claimed there was conflict of interest because Faal had worked in his office before moving to work for Muthaura.

"He received weekly internal reports that summarised confidential filings, decisions, hearings and other matters," Ocampo claimed.

The Pre-Trial Chamber received a report prepared by the Division of Court Services within the Registry, revealing all actions preformed on stored documents.

On Wednesday evening, after going through the observations filed in her chamber regarding the issue, judge Trendafilova ruled that the prosecutor has not proved that the lawyer was privy to information on the Kenyan cases.

Muthaura’s lead counsel, Karim Khan, took on board Faal and Ms Shyamala Alagendra — a Malaysian national who also formerly worked in the ICC’s prosecution office — to join the defence team.

Ambassador Muthaura is charged together with five others with crimes stemming from post-election violence in 2007/2008. The others are Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta, Postmaster General (and former Police Commissioner) Hussein Ali, suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto, former Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgey and Kass FM radio presenter Joshua arap Sang.