ICC Summons Post-Election Violence Suspects

By Staff writer

NAIROBI--The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday summoned the six suspects accused of crimes against humanity during Kenya’s 2007 post-election chaos. They are accused for planning the deadly violence that followed Kenya's disputed presidential election.

The six include deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Civil Service boss Francis Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali , suspended Cabinet ministers William Ruto and Henry Kosgey and radio announcer Joshua Sang.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo did seek the summonses in December. His naming of the six suspects sent shockwaves through the government, and has prompted a desperate effort by President Mwai Kibaki's camp to discredit the court and have proceedings deferred.

The ICC case relates to the bloodbath that engulfed the release of the 2007 presidential election. More than 1,300 people were killed by police or in ethnic attacks, which human rights groups say were planned and financed by leading politicians. The coalition government failed to set up a local tribunal to punish the main perpetrators, as it had promised to do when a peace deal to end the bloodshed was signed, prompting the ICC to step in.

The Pre-Trial Chamber judges, Ekaterina Tendafilova and Cuno Tarfusser agreed with ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s arguments that there was reasonable evidence that the six played a key role in the post election violence.

“The chamber is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Muthaura and Kenyatta are criminally responsible as indirect co-perpetrators and that Ali is criminally responsible as having contributed to crimes committed by a group of persons,” they ruled.

They also ruled by majority decision that there were grounds to believe Ruto and Kosgey were responsible as indirect co-perpetrators of murder, forcible transfer of population and persecutions. It was reasonable to believe that Sang "contributed to crimes" of a similar nature, the court said.

Kenya's government has been pursuing efforts to defer ICC trials stemming from the violence, and Kenya's parliament has urged the government to withdraw from the treaty that established the ICC.

The efforts are part of an attempt to stop the ICC from prosecuting the six suspects, and to allow Kenyan authorities to try them locally.  Kenya is legally obligated to cooperate with the ICC.

This week, President Kibaki dispatched envoys to lobby all UN Security Council members for a 12-month stay on the ICC proceedings, on the grounds that Kenya needs time to establish a special local tribunal to deal with post-election crimes. But most local commentators have interpreted the move as a ploy to save his allies from facing international justice.

The court's decisiveness may call to the termination of his efforts to have the case deferred.