By OLIVER MATHENGE omathenge@ke.nationmedia.com and Agencies
Posted Thursday, September 1 2011 at 22:30
Posted Thursday, September 1 2011 at 22:30
The hearings to confirm the role played by three of the six Kenyans accused of planning and financing the 2007-08 post-election violence started Thursday, with a defence lawyer accusing prosecutors of failing to properly investigate the unrest.
“There has been a failure, a total failure, to investigate the exonerating circumstances in the investigation,” Mr David Hooper, the defence lawyer of Mr William Ruto, told the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC). (Read:Ruto group to question Hague trials)
“I hope the bench appreciates the deep frustration he (Ruto) is feeling. He is here solely because of a flawed investigation based on the over-reliance on a handful of witnesses,” Mr Hooper said, adding “you have been given a slanted and wrong interpretation of evidence”.
Presiding judge Ekaterina Trendafilova asked lawyers for Mr Ruto, Mr Henry Kosgey and Mr Joshua Sang, and Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to avoid repetitive arguments and play by the court’s rules.
Rejected application
She blocked attempts by Mr Hooper to be allocated more time for submissions and rejected an application by Mr Ruto and Mr Sang that the schedule be amended.
The judge said the tight schedule was informed by, among others, the fact that the suspects were active in employment and need to return to work.
But she pointed out that the schedule was not cast in stone and could be changed whenever possible.
The court also threw out Kenya’s request to be represented at the hearings, saying the government was not an interested party in the proceedings.
Judge Trendafilova is hearing the case alongside Justices Hans-Peter Kaul and Cuno Tarfusser.
The parties will be given two or three weeks to raise any issue in writing if they do not manage to raise them in the course of the oral hearings that end on September 12.
Mr Kosgey’s lawyer, Mr George Oraro, sought to persuade the court that the cases could be handled in Kenya.
Mr Ruto, 44, Mr Kosgey, 64 and Mr Sang, 35, are among the six Kenyans Mr Moreno-Ocampo accuses of bearing the greatest responsibility for the 2007/8 election violence.
The other suspects, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Postmaster-General Hussein Ali, are due in court on September 21.
The hearings, during which prosecutors will try to convince the court they have enough evidence to go to trial, are scheduled to run until September 12.
Ruto’s group faces charges including murder, forcible transfer and persecution committed against perceived supporters of the Party of National Unity (PNU) following the election results.
Judge Trendafilova earlier told the opening hearing: “The confirmation of charges hearing is not a mini-trial. This chamber does not decide on guilt. . . Our duty is to act as a filter of cases to decide whether to go to trial or not,” she said. The three men arrived early for the 3.30pm hearing, and Mr Sang told journalists waiting at the entrance: “I am feeling good, I have just come to explain myself here today.”They are believed to have been part of a plan “targeting members of the civilian population supporting PNU in order to punish them and evict them from the Rift Valley with the ultimate goal of gaining power and creating a uniform ODM voting bloc”.
“I’m innocent, I’ll always be innocent,” he said.
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