Lawyer Paul Gicheru has pleaded not guilty to all eight counts of tampering with International Criminal Court (ICC)witnesses.
Gicheru went on trial at the Hague based court charged with bribing and threatening prosecution witnesses so that they would withdraw their statements in a case that ultimately collapsed amid widespread witness interference on Tuesday.
Deputy Prosecutor James Stewart said the case sends a strong message about the court protecting its ability to dispense out justice for atrocities around the world.
“We seek to preserve and strengthen public confidence in the court and the expectations of those who look to the court to establish the truth and deliver justice,” Stewart said in his opening statement. “Those who would seek to undermine the court’s ability to provide redress for the victims of mass atrocities cannot be allowed to prevail. They must be held accountable.”
The prosecution allege that Gicheru was part of a group of co-conspirators that approached prosecution witnesses and offered them money to recant their evidence and withdraw from the case against Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua Sang.
ICC judges threw out the case in 2016 due to insufficient evidence.
“The most egregious and damaging instance of such witness interference with the accused Paul Gicheru allegedly at its center commenced in early 2013 and continued throughout the trial,” Stewart said.
Ruto and Sang were among four others including President Uhuru Kenyatta, Henry Kosgey, Hussein Ali and Francis Muthaura christened Ocampo six who were charged with involvement in violence that erupted after the 2007 presidential elections that left more than 1,000 dead and displacing hundreds from their homes.Charges against all of them were ultimately dropped.
Ruto was defended during his trial by Karim Khan, the British lawyer who is now the ICC’s prosecutor. Khan has since recused himself from the case against Gicheru.
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