By MURITHI MUTIGA mmutiga@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, February 4 2012 at 22:32
Posted Saturday, February 4 2012 at 22:32
Suspects facing trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) can now call on the services of former Attorney-General Amos Wako.
Mr Wako was admitted to the list of counsel at the ICC last week, meaning he can represent suspects, victims or accused persons at The Hague-based court.
Ms Anna Osure, the deputy head of the office of legal aid and detention at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was also admitted to the list. Only lawyers approved by ICC can take up cases.
Mr Wako, who was plucked from the United Nations system to serve as Attorney-General in 1991, becomes one of the most prominent Kenyan lawyers accredited by the ICC.
He told the Sunday Nation that taking up matters at the court would be a “logical progression” for him because he was part of a team of lawyers and international statesmen that helped establish the world’s first permanent, treaty-based international criminal court.
“In 1980 when I was one of the international commissioners for the ICJ at a meeting just outside The Hague, the ICJ and Amnesty International were among the first people to call for an international criminal court. We didn’t realise it would be in our lifetimes.”
Mr Wako, who was recently elected a commissioner with the UN International Law Commission, said he had not been contacted by any of the four suspects but that some suspects in another country had “sent feelers”.
“I look forward to this challenge. Many Kenyans don’t know this, but in the early 1990s the UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros Ghali put forward my name to serve as the first chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
“President Moi gave me the okay assuming that I would be based in Nairobi but when he learnt that I needed to take a five-year leave of absence, he vetoed the move.”
He will also serve as duty counsel at the ICC, meaning suspects summoned to appear or prosecuted before the court may choose him to represent them during their first appearance before the chamber before the assignment of their lead counsel.
A duty counsel can also take up advisory assignments from the ICC.
Ms Osure, the other Kenyan accepted to the list of counsel this week, is one of the most senior East Africans in the international justice system.
She has experience in international criminal law and advocacy work on human rights of women having worked for the UN high commissioner for human rights in Burundi as a human rights officer.
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