International Criminal Court (ICC) judge, Miatta Maria Samba agreed to a request by lawyer Paul Gicheru to postpone his status conference.
On Friday, August 27, the Trial Chamber III judge agreed to push back Gicheru's case of corruptly influencing witnesses by a week.
Judge Samba explained that the decision to postpone the state conference was reached since the prosecution did not object to Gicheru's request.
However, the judge noted that Gicheru ought to have explained the reason for requesting for the status conference to be postponed.
"According to the first sentence of the regulation 35(2) of the court, the chamber may extend a time limit if a good cause is shown."
"In this specific instance, although the chamber considers that the request could benefit from further substantiation, it noted that the prosecution does not oppose the postponement," Judge Samba stated.
When the court sessions resume lawyer Gicheru will explain if he plans to defend himself and how long his opening statement will be.
The judge issued directives, stating that when the status conference resumes the prosecution will, among many other matters, reveal to the Trial Chamber the evidence it intends to use against Gicheru.
Further, the prosecution will disclose whether there is a need for protecting witnesses in the case, considering how sensitive and emotive the matter is.
The judge added that the prosecution will also submit to the chamber if there are any active investigations and disclose the identity of the witnesses who had not been revealed to Gicheru.
Lawyer Gicheru will be informed of other matters or conditions in regard to the case, for instance, the number of witnesses that the prosecution will call and whether there is evidence to be submitted via audio or video links.
Earlier this week, the chamber allowed evidence extracted from Deputy President, William Ruto’s file, to be used in the case facing lawyer Paul Gicheru.
The court on Tuesday, August 24, also allowed for evidence filed against journalist Joshua Sang to be extracted and used in Gicheru's trial.
