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ICC to hold Uhuru Kenyatta status conference Wednesday

Tuesday July 08 2014
besouda

ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. Photo/FILE

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) will on Wednesday hold a hearing where prosecutors will update the trial chamber on the “depth of cooperation” from the Kenyan government three months after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s trial was adjourned.

Kenyatta’s trial was deferred on March 31 to give the Kenyan government more time to “provide certain records”, which the prosecution had previously requested saying they are relevant to a central allegation to the case.

Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, ICC outreach coordinator for Kenya and Uganda Maria Kamara said: “The purpose of the Status Conference is for the parties to provide to the trial chamber an update of the execution of the revised prosecution request for cooperation.”

“The parties during the Status Conference will indicate to the judges whether the requests have been executed fully or partially, or they have not been executed,” she said.

ICC Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, informed the trial chamber on June 30 ahead of the Wednesday status conference that the Kenyan government had partially furnished her office with material relating to Kenyatta’s wealth.

The prosecution had demanded access to records of Kenyatta’s assets, including “complete call data records including calls made and received, SMS or other messages sent and received together with financial details held by the service providers” between June 1, 2007 and December 15, 2010.

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President Kenyatta’s cases at the ICC appeared headed for termination after witnesses either dropped or opted out. Bensouda was hoping that the new information would tighten the evidence against Kenyatta.

READ: ICC lacks enough evidence to nail Uhuru

In the March decision, the chamber rejected Kenyatta’s plea to have his case terminated as well the prosecution request to suspend the proceedings indefinitely, until the Kenyan government furnished them with the president’s financial records.

The chamber instead directed the prosecution to submit within two weeks a new request to the Kenyan authorities on Kenyatta’s financial records, and ordered both parties to cooperate and consult.

The trial of Kenyatta, who is charged with being responsible for the ethnic violence that rocked Kenya after the 2007 election, was suspended indefinitely.

A status conference for Kenyatta’s deputy William Ruto will be held Tuesday at 11:30pm local time. The hearing will, however, be a closed session “for issues of confidentiality and sensitivity of the matters that will be discussed,” Kamara said.

The deputy president is charged alongside radio journalist Joshua arap Sang. The trial will resume on July 10 after it adjourned on May 16.

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