New York, US - The International Criminal Court (ICC) said it has set 9 July as the trial date for Kenyan presidential contender Uhuru Kenyatta and two former Kenyan officials for post-election crimes in 2007, a statement said on Friday.
The statement, made available to PANA in New York, stated: “Kenyatta, former Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura and former Police Chief Hussein Ali appeared before the ICC last year to hear allegations that they were behind violence after disputed 2007 elections”.
The ICC said it granted a defence teams’ request for a delay, “setting a provisional trial date for 9 July, to which the Prosecutor did not oppose”.
“The Trail Chamber considers that, in addition to Defence submissions related to delayed disclosure of information, the Defence teams’ applications requesting referral back to the
Pre-Trial Chamber raise very serious issues that must be resolved before the trial can proceed and which may not be resolved before 11 April, 2013, the date initially set for the
opening of the trial,’’ it noted.
The statement also disclosed that, 'the defence teams in the case, Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang, also submitted requests to postpone the opening of the
trial, currently scheduled to being on 10 April, 2013'.
'Trial Chamber V will issue its decision on these requests in due course,' it added.
Kenyatta was cleared to run in this year's presidential election in Kenya by a national court that said he was innocent until proven guilty.
This year's elections is the first under new laws aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2007 violence.
Pana 08/03/2013