ICC to summon 6 over Kenya postelection violence
NAIROBI, Kenya -- The International Criminal Court's prosecutor said Thursday he will not seek arrest warrants for six top Kenyans accused of orchestrating Kenya's political violence almost three years ago, but said they would still face prosecution at the Hague.
Since March Luis Moreno Ocampo has been investigating the Kenya case when he was given authority to do so by the ICC. He said on Thursday he now has two cases against six individuals ready and he will publicly name them when he seeks indictments before Dec. 17. Moreno Ocampo said he will instead ask the court to summon the six individuals but said the court may reject his application or issue arrest warrants instead.
If the court accepts Moreno Ocampo's application, it means the individuals will be expected to voluntarily appear before the court and may not be detained at The Hague, where the tribunal sits.
"The responsibility of six individuals who in accordance with the evidence bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes committed will be evaluated in court. These people will go to The Hague," Moreno Ocampo told a conference reviewing the progress Kenya has made in implementing key reforms seen as necessary to avoid a repeat of the violence almost three years ago.
"The judges will make final decisions if they have to go to jail at the end of a fair judicial process," he said. Moreno Ocampo plans to present two cases of three individuals each.
"There are no doubts that massive crimes were committed in Kenya, the issue is who is responsible," he said. "This is my challenge. To prove who are the most responsible for the crimes committed."
The Kenya case will not be the first time the prosecutor has asked the court to issue summons instead of arrest warrants. In June, two Sudanese rebel leaders suspected in a deadly 2007 attack against African Union peacekeepers in Darfur voluntarily surrendered to the ICC to face war crimes charges.
Moreno Ocampo did say that as part of its investigations, the ICC invited individuals who had been named in separate reports on the December 2007-February 2008 violence to offer their version of what happened. More than 1,000 people died in the violence that began after President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of a disputed December 2007 poll.
A former Cabinet minister who was named by a government-funded human rights organization in its report went to the Hague last month to record a statement. His visit has been followed by controversy over allegations that a witness protection program may have been compromised
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