Deputy President William Ruto likely to lose trial breaks at the International Criminal Court

A picture taken on September 10, 2013 shows Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto in the courtroom before his trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. PHOTO/AFP| FILE 

In Summary

• Once the Deputy President’s case resumes on Wednesday, it will go on for the whole month
• Prosecution fights application to delay hearings at The Hague

By Walter Menya

The International Criminal Court is working on a new schedule that could keep Deputy President William Ruto at The Hague for the whole of October.

Initially, the trial of Mr Ruto and Mr Sang was to run until October 4 then take a 10-day break and resume on October 14 until November 1.

However, by adjourning until Wednesday to allow Mr Ruto to return to Nairobi following the terrorist attack at Westgate mall, the court disrupted its own calendar besides coming under criticism for granting Mr Ruto preferential treatment.

“By basing its decision on Ruto’s official status, the Trial Chamber may be creating a precedent to grant state officials special treatment in a court that was intended to target those most responsible for international crimes, irrespective of who they are.

“Further, the (Trial Chamber’s initial) decision to allow Ruto’s trial to take place largely in his absence will hardly contribute to victims and witnesses’ confidence in the proceedings. Such rulings flowing from ICC amount to caressing the big fish and duality of law,” Mr Ndung’u Wainaina, executive director of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict, said.

Presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said the Chamber would rework the entire schedule and “communicate in the normal way” to the parties in response to the lawyer for Joshua Sang, Mr Katwa Kigen, who wanted the court to indicate whether the initial court schedule would stand.

According to one of the lawyers involved in the cases, all indications are that there will be no break once the trials resume on Wednesday. “It seems like we will not get the 10 days we were set to get,” said Mr Kigen.

Mr Ruto is due in court on Wednesday after the Trial Chamber granted him two more days in addition to the one-week’s absence he had sought and obtained. Mr Ruto, through his lead defence counsel Karim Khan, wanted his trial to resume on October 14, which would have translated to a three-week break.

In requesting for the additional 14 days, Mr Khan had outlined a schedule that the deputy president would be required to attend. According to the lawyer, the National Security Council, in which the deputy president sits, was meeting yesterday to receive a forensic audit report on the mall attack from domestic investigators.

The NSC would then sit again, this time to meet international investigators. Mr Khan also said that Mr Ruto would be required to attend the third NSC meeting tomorrow, the day his trial was initially set to resume, to receive the combined forensic audit reports.

Then on Tuesday October 1, a national inter-denominational prayer meeting has been planned at the KICC.

“That is an important event that the deputy president will speak at if the court grants the adjournment,” Mr Khan stated.

On Wednesday, Mr Khan informed the chamber that Mr Ruto would be chairing combined committees of the Senate, the National Assembly and the Executive to discuss anti-terrorism frameworks.

“The application would be to adjourn and reconvene, with the court’s leave on October 14,” Mr Khan said, adding that it was not the defence’s intention to delay the proceedings.

“The defence has no interest in delaying these proceedings,” he said.

However, the prosecution opposed the application for extra days for Mr Ruto with lead prosecution counsel Anton Steynberg saying the deputy president ought to make arrangements to delegate some of his tasks to “competent people to deal with on his behalf”.

Mr Steynberg argued that attending the high-level meetings that the defence had cited was the ordinary task of the President and the Deputy President and if Mr Ruto’s request is granted “he will continuously ask for the same”.

“Even after two weeks, wouldn’t there be other emergencies the accused wishes to attend to? The immediate crisis has been resolved, and the accused’s presence must take precedence in this case,” said Mr Steynberg.

“The chamber will partially grant the request. The adjournment is until Tuesday, October 1 and the hearings to continue on Wednesday, October 2,” Judge Eboe-Osuji ruled.

The two extra days, the judge said, were to permit Mr Ruto to attend the inter-denominational prayer service on Tuesday at KICC for the victims of the mall attack “which is important for national healing”.

“Hearings will continue the week of October 7-11 2013, contrary to what was initially scheduled (except for October 9 due to other hearings to take place in other ICC cases at the ICC’s premises),” the court said.