Ocampo should be the one facing prosecution

By Tony Gachoka

Kenya: The former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is in criminal contempt of the ICC court over the Kenyan cases and is in clear breach of the explicit provisions of the Rome Statue which obligate the conduct of a fair trial.

The latest public statements by Moreno-Ocampo confirm my worst fears of a grave miscarriage of justice in the President’s case. Moreno-Ocampo has now admitted publicly, that in the prosecution of the Kenyan situation he was pressured by much of the International community, who wanted Uhuru not just ‘prosecuted but barred from elections’ in effect the ICC indictment was a political maneuver that amounted to a policy to effect regime change in Kenya for a preferred candidate.

Secondly Moreno-Ocampo’s timing is very curious; he chooses to speak out just before the delivery of the Kenya Government’s invited response to accusation on non-cooperation at the ongoing ICC proceedings; and for the President’s defence team, his comments must seem malicious and prejudicial in the least, being ahead of the most crucial status conference that will possibly see the case eventually dropped for lack of sufficient evidence.

In my view Moreno-Ocampo’s comments amount to contempt of court, a gross violation and abuse of the legal process whose aim is solely to injure the image of the President by prosecuting issues about ‘weight of evidence outside the court room’.

The Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statue recently heard of the excesses of the OTP and as State Parties Africa should not allow this kind of extra judicial mob justice as pursued by Moreno-Ocampo’s latest outburst. The former prospector is well aware that his case as constituted is on the verge of collapse.