International Criminal Court (ICC) has given Lawyer Paul Gicheru the authority to use materials provided by the prosecution to defend himself in the case where he is being accused of witness interference.
Judge Maria Samba allowed Gicheru to table 28 documents from the prosecution evidence during the trial of his case over bribing of witnesses in war crimes cases against Deputy President William Ruto.
According to Gicheru’s defence team, the evidence will be instrumental in helping defend the lawyer.
Micheal Karnavas the lead lawyer representing Gicheru indicated that his client will not appear before the court to present evidence as a witness. Instead, the team will use evidence already in court.
“Chambers recognise the document as formally submitted. The chambers instruct the registry to ensure that the e-court metadata reflects that the items in question have been reorganised as formally submitted to the chambers,” the judge said.
The judge further announced the end of submissions and asked both the prosecution and the defence to submit their closing statements by June 27, 2022.
The time allocated by the judge to Gicheru for the submission will be an hour for each team.
Top of the defiance’s in-tray during the submission will be investigation reports, witness statements, transcripts of interviews, witness-related expense reports and transcripts from the Ruto – Sang case.
Other critical information that the Gicheru defence team will be exploring forensic execration reports, office of the prosecutor screening notes, email communication, translations of transcripts of audio-recorded phone calls and statements obtained from the Kenya human rights organisations.
