Category: Justice

{{Uganda announced Friday it was ready to turn over Congolese anti – government rebels to The Hague to face trial for war crimes.}}

Okello Oryem, the foreign affairs state minister, said Ugandan officials were awaiting from Congolese authorities a list of rebels of the March 23 Movement suspected of rape, the execution of civilians and recruiting child soldiers during a 20-month rebellion in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo that ended last November.

The suspects are among the more than 1,000 M23 insurgents currently in Ugandan custody after they fled Congo in December ahead of a United Nations-backed offensive by the Congolese army to quash the uprising, which left thousands of people dead and nearly a million displaced.

“We are ready to cooperate in the transfer of any suspects to the ICC. We are tired of being accused of harboring Congolese dissidents,” Mr. Oryem said.

{{A Muslim cleric and his wife allegedly found with two grenades during a swoop in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate following a terrorist attack in which six people were killed have been denied bail.}}

The couple will be helping police with investigations to recover 20 other grenades said to be hidden in the city, the trial court ruled.

Mr Hassan Mahati Omar and his wife Ms Fardosa Mohammed Abdi were charged with being in possession of two hand grenades on April 1, 2014 at Madina Apartments in Eastleigh Section 7.

They were also charged with being members of an al Shabaab terrorist cell operating in Kenya.

The prosecution said the two are suspected to be involved in terrorism and that on April 1, “they were found to be members of the al Shabaab after being found in possession of the two grenades which were meant to be used for terrorism activities.”

While opposing their request for release on bond, prosecutor Isaiah Mwiranga told the court that the two were needed to help trace the hidden explosives and that they may interfere with ongoing investigations.

Their lawyer Chacha Mwita claimed the defence would prove the “grenades were planted on the suspects.”

The prosecutor said the recovered weapons were part of a larger cache being sought in an on-going probe.

The prosecutor objected to a suggestion by Mr Mwita that the suspects have so far been cooperative and would not abscond if released.

“They remain a security threat to this country and its citizens and the application for bail is meant to defeat justice,” the prosecutor said.

He said officers from the anti-terrorism police unit were not yet through with investigations.

Magistrate Elena Nderitu said there were sufficient reasons to compel the court to detain the suspects until such a time those investigations are complete and to prevent them from interfering.

The case will be mentioned on April 17.

The cleric and his wife were arrested after police mounted a security operation in Eastleigh following a terrorist attack on March 31.

Nation

{{International Criminal Court on Monday postponed Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s repeatedly-delayed trial over post-election violence to October, saying it was giving Kenya more time to look for documents wanted by prosecutors.}}

“Today the Trial Chamber adjourned the case against Uhuru Kenyatta until October 7,” the Hague-based ICC said in a statement.

The east African country is given “a further time-limited opportunity to provide certain records which the prosecution previously requested on the basis that the records are relevant to a central allegation to the case,” the ICC said.

Kenya’s lawyers last month slapped down accusations that it was not cooperating with the world’s war crimes court, where Kenyatta, 52, faces crimes against humanity charges for his alleged role in masterminding post-poll violence in 2007-08.

Prosecutors say more than 1,100 people died and hundreds-of-thousands of others were displaced in the country’s Rift Valley and elsewhere in clashes between pro-ruling and opposition party supporters.

But ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda late last year asked for a three-month postponement after admitting she no longer had enough evidence to put Kenyatta on trial.

Prosecutors then told judges in an apparent final push to bring the powerful African leader to trial that they needed Kenyatta’s financial statements.

The statements, they said, could either prove or disprove Kenyatta’s involvement in funding post-poll violence, the worst since Kenyan independence in 1963.

Kenyatta’s trial and that of his rival-turned-partner, Kenyan Vice President William Ruto, who faces similar charges, have been dogged by problems and delays.

These include accusations of witness intimidation and witness withdrawals, false testimony from other witnesses, and Kenya’s international campaign to have the trials put on hold.

African leaders frequently complain that the ICC discriminates against their continent. Kenyatta has lobbied intensively to muster support against the tribunal.

Arguments include allegations that the court is targeting Africans and that Kenya’s leaders need to be available to tackle Al-Qaeda-linked militants who have turned neighbouring Somalia into a major global jihadist hub.

Both Kenyatta and Ruto have maintained their innocence.

AFP