{Details of how the trials facing the President will be conducted were released on Sunday.}
The ICC Trial Chamber presiding over President Uhuru Kenyatta’s case indicated that some sections of the charges will not be read loudly in court.
Judges Kuniko Ozaki, Robert Fremr and Chile Eboe-Osuji ensured that the country will not face a leadership vacuum when they said the cases facing the President and his deputy will alternate on a four weekly basis.
In the countdown to the first trial of a sitting President in the history of The Hague-based court which has been ferociously fought by the African Union (AU), the three judges said the document containing the charges will not be read in full during the opening of the trials.
The decision, they said, was reached during the status conference between the prosecutors and judges held in September.
“As agreed by the parties, only the “charges” section of the document will be read out at the opening of the trial for the purposes of fulfilling the requirements of the Statute (establishing the ICC),” said the judges.
This means that the parts containing the President’s official title, the events which led to the crimes against humanity he is accused of, the position he used to hold at the time and the previous events at the ICC which resulted in the trials set for February 5, 2014 will not be read out in court by the officers.
They were however directed his lawyers to ensure that the President had read the entire document containing the charges and understood the details it contained with his signature as the seal of approval.
While the cases will proceed, they ruled that President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto will fly to the Hague at alternating four weeks.
This will also ensure that Judges Fremr and Eboe-Osuji who also preside over Mr Ruto’s case have adequate time to prepare.
“In the light of parallel proceedings in ‘Ruto and (Joshua) Sang’ in which two judges of this chamber also participate, the chamber announces that, in principle, the present case will be heard in alternating four week blocks with the Ruto and Sang case,” they ruled.
Mr Ruto’s case, alongside former journalist Sang, started in September and will resume in January.
Daily Nation
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