The International Criminal Court (ICC) has scheduled to conduct its pre-trial hearing in the Paul Gicheru case. The lawyer is accused of witness tampering in the thrown-out case of DP William Ruto at the Hauge-based court.
According to Maitta Maria Samba, a Trial judge in the court, Gicheru’s case status conference will be held on September 17 and has already directed Mr. Gicheru’s defense team and the Office of the Prosecutor to file their written arguments by September 10.
Read: ICC: How William Ruto was directly involved in witness tampering
The judge has also directed the prosecution to provide information on the evidence it plans to table against Mr. Gicheru to help facilitate the preparation of the status conference and to enable the Trial Chamber to set the date for commencement of the lawyer’s trial.
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The requested information by Judge Samba should contain the estimated number of witnesses to be called and the number of hours of in-court testimony and whether there are expert witnesses to be used in the case.
Apart from informing the court on testimony provided by audio or video links and the estimated volume of documentary or other non-testimonial evidence to be relied upon at trial, the Office of the Prosecutor will also tell the court whether it will use prior recorded testimonies, such as written statements and transcripts of recorded interviews with witnesses, in addition to or instead of testimony in court.
Read: ICC Lawyer Paul Gicheru’s phone was used to call Ruto’s witnesses
On the other hand, Lawyer Paul Gicheru’s team is expected to provide information on whether it intends to advance a defence by raising a ground for excluding the accused from criminal responsibility. The lawyer is facing eight charges on offenses against the administration of justice by corruptly influencing witnesses in DP Ruto’s ICC case. One of the accusations against him is offering Sh20.4 million in bribes to witnesses to withdraw from the case.
