Lawyers fault Ocampo's evidence
Joyce J. Wangui, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya Photo: :Former industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey sits with his lawyers in the courtroom of ICC
As the confirmation hearings for the first batch of the Kenyan post-election violence suspects kicked off Thursday at the ICC, lawyers representing the three turned the heat on Louis Ocampo, the prosecutor, claiming that his defense was biased and lacked credibility.
The first three suspects attending the hearings are former ministers William Ruto, Henry Kosgei and radio journalist Joshua Sang. Ocampo claims that Ruto and Kosgei financed the attacks through the sale of machetes and paying the ‘killers’ while Sang broadcasted hate messages against rival tribes.
The defense team consisting of three prominent lawyers accused Chief ICC Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo of releasing contradicting information against their clients. Ocampo pointed out that he had substantive information that the three suspects indeed committed the alleged crimes. His evidence accuses them of masterminding the attacks and subsequently killing people who were supporting their rival party during the disputed elections.
Ocampo told judges at the ICC that his evidence shows how senior Kenyan politicians including Ruto and Kosgei (of the Ocampo6) gave out cash to drive attacks in the Rift Valley province. The aim was to purchase weapons and drive out members of the Kikuyu tribe from the Rift Valley. At the time, anyone purported to be supporting Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity was deemed a ‘foreigner’ in Rift Valley, hence the need to eliminate them.
But without mincing words, Ocampo strongly defended the allegations on grounds that his office has evidence showing Ruto, Kosgey, and Sang organized the attacks that left several people dead and others injured.
However defense lawyers claim his evidence is not conclusive. That he failed to investigate the other side of the account that pits Kenyans top politicians involvement in masterminding the attacks.
They will also seek to combat the Prosecutor’s argument that their clients had a common agenda and acted from the script of an organizational policy.
The defense team will be asking the court to look at the definitions of groups and organizational policy as spelt out in the law and to apply them strictly.
They now want the court to exercise its jurisdiction and dismiss the allegations by Ocampo, on grounds that he presented contradictory evidence to the court, and did not investigate before framing the allegations.
The ICC is holding hearings to determine whether to confirm charges that Ocampo has brought against the three for their alleged role in the Kenya chaos that left 1,300 dead and 600,000 homeless. After the confirmation hearings for the three, which began on Thursday and will run for 11 days, with an extra day in case it would be needed, the judges will have 60 days to deliver their ruling during which they can decline or confirm either all or some of the charges.
Katwa Kigen, the defense lawyer representing William Ruto, defended his client, refuting claims that he (Ruto) or any associate personally provided weapons, telephones, fuel or transport for attacks, or of having used his personal funds to sponsor criminal activity.
"The Defense notes that the Prosecution relies on anonymous witnesses only in support of these allegations. It has failed to produce any tangible evidence, such as pictures, transaction or purchase receipts notwithstanding that the collection of such evidence should be within the Prosecution’s investigative ability, if it in fact exists," he told the court.
The defense teams asked the court to reconsider what it has earlier ruled that it has power under the Rome Statute to hear the Kenyan case.
Day 2 of the hearings dwells mostly on the prosecutor's presentation of the evidence on crimes against humanity and the modes of liability for each of the three suspects.
Ocampo’s office is supporting its evidence by using video clips to show that the suspects indeed committed the alleged crimes.
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