The International Criminal Court has established a pre-trial chamber to hear the case against lawyer Paul Gicheru.
The ICC on Tuesday also confirmed that Gicheru voluntarily presented himself to The Hague, bringing a fresh twist to the collapsed case against Deputy President William Ruto.
Gicheru’s case will be heard by a Beninese judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou. In an interview with the Star, the Office of the Prosecutor, headed by Fatou Bensouda, said the lawyer surrendered in The Hague of his own volition.
“The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court welcomes Paul Gicheru’s voluntary surrender to the authorities of The Netherlands,” the prosecution team told the Star.
The details emerged as Ruto’s men started claiming that Gicheru’s surrender was part of the wider scheme to revive the Deputy President’s ICC case and subsequently scuttle his presidential bid.
Gicheru was slapped with an international arrest warrant in 2015 for allegedly corruptly influencing witnesses to withdraw from the case against Ruto and journalist Joshua arap Sang.
The withdrawal of six of the witnesses, some described as star witnesses, led to the crumbling of the case.
Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi alleged that the state had earlier sent some officers to Eldoret Central police station to pick up files recorded during the 2007-08 post-election violence.
Eldoret, Ruto’s political backyard, was one of the epicentres of the violence in which 35 people were burnt to death while seeking refuge in KAG Church, Kiambaa, on January 1, 2008.
Sudi also claimed that a former police boss in Eldoret had also been dispatched to The Hague with an unknown motive.