Ocampo names Kenya chaos suspects
Posted Wednesday, December 15 2010 at 14:09
The six include senior politicians in the Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the main parties that battled it out for the presidency in the disputed 2007 elections.
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Wednesday that the prominent leaders bore "the greatest responsibility" for the violence that left 1,133 people dead and 650,000 displaced.
Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, his Industrialisation counterpart Henry Kosgey, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, the head of the civil service Francis Muthaura, former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and journalist Joshua arap Sang will now receive summons to appear before The Hague- based court.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo was addressing a news conference after presenting before the ICC judges two cases, each involving three individuals.
The documents he gave the court included the names of the six, the crimes they are alleged to have committed and the penalty that he will be asking for.
A three-judge bench will now evaluate the two 80-page bundles of documents and decide whether he can proceed and file the charges he has identified.
Two weeks ago, Mr Moreno-Ocampo had promised to name the suspects during an address to a meeting of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation, convened by the Panel of Eminent African Personalities chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Upper Hill, Nairobi.
The prosecutor said the cases had been strengthened by new evidence his team had gathered, in addition to the leads contained in the Waki Commission and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reports.
"Since last March, when the judges issued an authorisation, my office has been investigating post electoral violence. We collected new evidence, including testimonies, videos and documents. We are not going to discuss our evidence in the media. We will do it in court," he said.
He said the Waki Commission and the KNCHR reports were key in the investigations into the post election chaos but they only provided the background on which his team based its inquiries.
Source: Daily Nation