ICC may give President Uhuru Kenyatta video option

President Kenyatta can ask judges to excuse him from travelling to The Hague, the International Criminal Court said on Monday.

“If the accused wishes to attend via video-link, he could make a request to the Chamber, which the Chamber would then rule on,” a statement from the Court’s Public Affairs Unit said.

In the absence of such a request, then he will be required to be physically in court for the status conference set for October 8.

“At the moment, no such request has been made by the accused and we cannot speculate on what the parties may request or what the Judge would decide,” the statement read.

POSTPONED THE START

On Friday, Trial Chamber V(b) Judges Kuniko Ozaki, Robert Fremr and Geoffrey Henderson postponed the start of Mr Kenyatta’s trial and instead ordered that a status conference be  held on October 7 and 8.

The prosecutor, Ms Fatou Bensouda, had asked the court to suspend the case indefinitely because she did not have the evidence to proceed.

However, she accused the government of Kenya of not cooperating in providing documents which would enable her to prosecute the President.

The Government, through Attorney-General Githu Muigai, defended itself, saying, it had given the prosecutor all the information she had requested.

President Kenyatta is on trial over the post-election violence of 2007.

“A representative of the Kenyan Government is invited to attend the first status conference and Mr Kenyatta is required to be present at the second status conference,” the judges said of the October 8 hearing.

The session is expected to discuss the status of cooperation between the prosecution and the Government and other issues that the prosecutors have raised before the court.

But it is unclear whether Mr Kenyatta will choose to avoid being the first sitting Head of State to appear at the ICC by choosing the video link route.

NOT BEEN SUMMONED

On Monday, his lawyers could not respond to the question but sources within the government said Kenya was consulting with the African Union before Mr Kenyatta decides what to do.

An extraordinary session of the AU in October 12, 2013 advised him and any other serving African Head of State not to honour the court’s summons.

However, the court has clarified that Mr Kenyatta has not been summoned.

The legal standing of the AU’s resolution may carry diplomatic weight, but is of no legal effect where the ICC proceedings are concerned.

The ICC has said Kenya is a State Party to the Rome Statute and is, therefore, obligated to cooperate with the ICC.

“The President should honour the summons to the ICC. In any case, he has no case to answer. There are many of us from across the political spectrum who are preparing to escort him. I’m already preparing to apply for a visa,” Kieni MP Kanini Kega told the Nation on Monday.

A status conference is not a trial hearing, but it is a session held before the ICC Chambers where judges may require some or all the parties to the case to be present.

The hearings are often public unless the matter at hand involves confidentiality requests.

Deputy President William Ruto is being tried alongside radio journalist Joshua arap Sang.

Mr Kenyatta’s co-accused, former Civil Service boss Francis Muthaura and former police boss Hussein Ali, have since been freed for lack of evidence.