Deputy President William Ruto's legal advisor Korir Sing'oei on Wednesday, December 8, met with the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan during the 20th session of the Assembly of Parties (ASP) at The Hague.
According to the DP's advisor, the newly appointed ICC prosecutor made an assurance that the international court would no longer be politically motivated cases but would strictly be guided by evidence.
He lauded Khan's stance of prosecuting cases through quality and quantity of evidence - which would determine whether or not a case can suffice.
"I welcomed Prosecutor Karim Khan's assurance that prosecutorial decisions at ICC shall be guided by whether quality and quantity of evidence gathered can satisfy evidentiary burden of the law; an important reset tone from an OTP previously bent on serving vested political interests," Sing'oei stated.
He further noted that during the session, they continued to lobby for a fair, consistent and non-politicised international criminal justice system.
"We continue to forge common ground towards a fair, consistent and non-politicized international criminal justice system that aligns with the imperatives of global peace and security," he pointed out.
Karim represented Ruto during the ICC case at the Hague. He was recently voted in as the new ICC prosecutor replacing Fatou Bensouda.
Days after his new role, Khan recused himself from Paul Gicheru's case- a lawyer who had also represented Ruto at The Hague. Khan cited conflict of interest as the primary reason for the recusal. In his place, deputy prosecutor, James Stewart, took charge of the case.
Gicheru has been on the spot after the international court issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of witness tampering and obstructing justice in the DP's case.
This led Gicheru to surrender himself at The Hague in November 2020 in order to allow for investigations to conclude.
The latest events regarding the case have seen the prosecution line up twelve witnesses to testify against Gicheru. The witnesses include three investigators, an analyst and six expert witnesses, who claim the lawyer intimidated witnesses to recant their statements on behalf of Ruto.
"At present, the prosecution plans to call approximately 12 to 13 witnesses to give oral testimony at trial."
"Apart from the three expert witnesses mentioned above, the prosecution does not foresee the need to call further expert evidence, nor to jointly brief experts with the defence," Stewart stated.
The court has also allowed the prosecution to use some of the evidence obtained from the Ruto case in prosecuting Gicheru.
