Kenyan poll riots trial transfer rejected
Written by MARC NKWAME in Arusha
WITH just four months to go before going to polls next March, Kenya's suspects behind the chaos that erupted during previous national elections will not have their cases transferred to Arusha.
Kenya's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and former Civil Service chief Francis Muthaura have lost a bid seeking to have their cases moved from the International Criminal Court in The Hague to the Arusha-based, United Nations Criminal Tribunal.
But earlier, the other Arusha-based, East African Court of Justice, through its registrar, Dr John Ruhangisa, stated that it was capable of handling Kenya' post-election chaos' cases. The two suspects in the fracas which claimed more than 1,300 lives in 2008, had asked to have their trial held in Arusha.
They have now been directed to file their application with the ICC presidency. Mr Muthaura, who once served at the Arusha-based, East African Community Secretariat as its founding Secretary General, had requested the Hague based ICC court to allow submissions from Kenyan and Tanzanian authorities to support the transfer wish, but this appeal has been rejected as well.
"The chamber rejects the request by the defence of Muthaura to invite submissions from the authorities in Kenya and Tanzania as to the prospect of holding the trial in either country," the ICC trial chamber ruled. In a ruling issued on Friday and which was made available in Arusha, the judges said that their ruling was based on a provision in the Rome Statute that allows the court to sit anywhere if appropriate.
"The Court may sit elsewhere, whenever it considers it desirable, as provided in the Statute," the judges said, citing Article 3 (3) of the Statute. "The Chamber rejects the request by Mr Kenyatta's defence to change the place of the trial, without prejudice to the right of the defence, in accordance with Rule 100 of the rules, to address its application to the Presidency, should it wish further to pursue the option of changing the place where the Court sits," the ICC said.
If the defence considers re-applying to the presidency, the presidency will then seek the views of the Trial Chamber and make a decision if the cases should be moved to other countries but after consulting the state where the court may consider holding its sittings.
In May this year, Kenyatta's defence team requested the Trial Chamber to consider transferring their case to Kenya or Arusha on the basis of the high travel costs involved and the fact that the case will be heard nearer to the affected region. Muthaura's defence team had also wanted the case to be heard at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha to "reduce disruption and strain that the trial would place on the accused persons.
"It could additionally reduce costs relating to witness travel, reduce disruption to victims and ensure that the judicial process remains in, or in proximity to, the territory concerned." Trials for the two and their co-accused Eldoret North MP William Ruto and Joshua arap Sang are set to begin at the ICC in April next year.
The four are facing trials over their possible roles in organizing or financing the post election violence of 2008, when more than 1,300 people were killed and nearly half a million others displaced.
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