Bensouda given more time to respond on witness coercion

By Felix Olick and Kevine Omollo

Nairobi, Kenya: ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has up to Friday next week to respond to a plea by Deputy President William Ruto to be allowed to appeal a ruling compelling eight witnesses to testify against him.

The response is expected as the trial of Ruto and his co-accused Joshua arap Sang is set to resume on May 14 and not May 12 as earlier scheduled.

Sources at the DP’s office said Ruto is expected to fly out of the country on Tuesday to attend the proceedings as was ordered by the International Criminal Court (ICC) judges.

According to ICC Field Outreach Co-ordinator Maria Mabinty Kamara, the deputy president will be expected to attend the first five days of the proceedings.

Kamara said even though Ruto had requested for excusal from attending the hearings and he had been granted that by the court, he must attend the first five days of every session after the judicial recess.

The Chamber on Wednesday allowed Bensouda additional time to make a consolidated response including the yet to be filed leave to appeal by Attorney General Githu Muigai.

“The Chamber accepts the Prosecution’s arguments and considers that there is good cause to extend the relevant time limit so as to allow time for the prosecution to file the consolidated response which it requests,” the three-judge Bench ruled.

The prosecution was initially required to file its response by tomorrow. However, they requested for additional time to respond.

“Without such an extension, the May 12 deadline set in the Trial Chamber’s Order will give the Government of Kenya-which is not a party-an undue advantage by giving it advance notice not only of any applications filed by the defence (due on May 5) but also the response filed by the Prosecution,” Bensouda argued.