ICC set to use satellite images as evidence

By Felix Olick

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has a new strategy to gather evidence against the four Kenyan suspects.

The prosecution intends to use satellite images and remote sensing data, calls and emails as part of the evidence. The prosecution has notifi ed the Chamber that their expert — a renowned United Nations satellite specialist — would produce satellite images on the locations of interest and alleged meetings.

Noticeable in the areas that ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda wants processed in the satellite images, is the controversial State House meeting.

In this meeting, Mungiki sect members were allegedly asked to carry out retaliatory attacks against perceived ODM supporters in Naivasha and Nakuru.

Also captured in Bensouda’s list is Nairobi members club on or around January 3, 2008 where it is alleged Jubilee presidential fl ag bearer Uhuru Kenyatta and former Head of Civil Service Francis met for similar preparatory meetings.

Prosecution’s request

“This (satellite expert) specialized knowledge and skills will assist the Chamber in understanding and interpreting these images, which will in turn inform the Chamber’s analysis of evidence that underpins the crime base incidents in Nakuru,

PEV-related preparatory meetings and sites of gathering of internally displaced persons in and around Nakuru and Naivasha,” said Bensouda.

During the pre-trial stage, former ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno- Ocampo convinced the judges that Uhuru, Muthaura and President Kibaki met Mungiki members at State House in Nairobi.

But the new prosecution’s strategy comes amid request by Uhuru and Muthaura that their cases be referred back to the Pre-Trial Chamber for reconsideration.

The duo repeated this request on Thursday during a Status Conference at The Hague after it emerged the prosecution had withdrawn the principal and the only witness that linked them to the State House meeting.

Their defence counsels claimed that the Pre-Trial Chamber had based its decision on confi rmation of charges on the evidence of the Witness 4 and as a result the case can now not stand.

During the Pre-Trial stage, the judges held that witness number four was present as a Mungiki representative in State House meeting attended by Uhuru and President Kibaki among others. But in her submission to the Chamber, Bensouda said she wants an analysis of satellite imagery that would assist to determine whether or not large gatherings or movements of people to, within, or out of the said locations took place.

Also to be captured is the large movement of vehicles within the said locations paying attention to whether they are civilian or military, erection of roadblocks as well as the burning of buildings.