Ruto, Kosgey and Sang's plea rejected by ICC Pre-Trial Chamber

By STEVE MKAWALE

The International Criminal Court has ruled the confirmation hearings case against three of six post-election violence suspects will start on September 1, as scheduled.

Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova dismissed an urgent joint defence application for postponement made by lawyers representing William Ruto, Joshua arap Sang’ and Henry Kosgey.

In her ruling delivered last Friday, Judge Ekaterina – acting as Single Judge on behalf of Pre-Trial Chamber II – rejected application saying it lacked merit.

Ruto and Sang’ made a joint application while Kosgey applied to be enjoined.

On August 11, the defence for Mr Ruto and Mr Sang’ submitted the urgent defence application for postponement of the confirmation hearing and extension of time to disclose and list of evidence.

The joint application requested six weeks postponement of the confirmation of charges hearing.

They also requested the postponement by three weeks of the related deadlines for disclosures of evidence, in particular the filing of its list of evidence in accordance with rule 421(6) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

The suspects’ lawyer claimed they endeavoured to be in a position to disclose some materials and files to the court by August 23.

In justifying the reasons for seeking adjournment, the defence team furnished the chamber with a number of reasons.

One of the reasons stated they had to spend time to take statements from potential defence witnesses.

They also said they needed time to wait for a number of formal and informal relevant requests they had sought from the Government and other State agencies.

They claimed they had to wait for responses from the authorities for within five to 40 days.

They further argued the statements and evidence the defence intends to disclose remain in Kenya, and due to security as well as logistical concerns such as poor Internet access, they could not be transmitted by email or sent by way of regular or fast mail carrier.

The defence team comprises Joseph Kipchumba Kigen-Katwa, David Hooper and Kioko Kilukumi Musau for Ruto. Katwa also represents Sang in the case while lawyer George Oraro represents Kosgey.

The lawyers argued it was difficult to obtain a travel visa for a team member to travel to the Netherlands with the evidence.

Kosgey’s lawyer filed a similar application, which was also rejected.