ICC : List of witnesses released

By Joylene Sing'oei

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has submitted to Trial Chamber V the list of witnesses to testify against Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Joshua arap Sang and Francis Muthaura at The Hague.

The prosecution also released the  summaries of the main facts on which each witness is expected to testify and the list of evidence to be relied upon at trial.

They have also given out a pre trial brief.  

The list containing the names of the witnesses is a confidential document marked Confidential ex parte Annex A with Bensouda saying it contains the names of witnesses for whom the Chamber has granted delayed disclosure or for whom an application is pending.

Bensouda has also included the amount of time each witness might take in testifying.

“The Prosecution estimates that it will require approximately 826 hours of court time. This estimate includes the time projected for the Prosecution’s questioning of its 43 fact witnesses (totaling approximately 383 hours),” she stated.

The Prosecution’s questioning of the three proposed experts (currently estimated at approximately no more than 30 hours in total) and the time the Defence will take in questioning the witnesses (totaling approximately 413 hours).

“The 826 hour estimate does not include time that the Chamber may grant to the Office of Public Counsel for Victims or the common legal representative to question Prosecution witnesses, or time that the Chamber may use to question witnesses,” a court document signed by Bensouda stated.

The four Kenyans are facing charges against humanity at the ICC following chaos that erupted after the disputed 2007 polls.