Former Chief Prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo
A year after the last of the
two Kenyan cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC) collapsed, the court
has confirmed investigations on a suspect email which appears to suggest the
cases were politically contrived. A leaked email communication between former
Chief Prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo and an American woman activist, which
surfaced last week, falls short of admitting that the naming, investigating and
prosecuting of top Kenyans fell outside genuine quest for justice for 2008
violence victims. In the conversation accessed by the Sunday Standard and dated
February 14, 2011, the activist asks Ocampo of the happenings in the cases and
why the prosecution had upset the judges by naming the suspects before
obtaining warrants against them in the court. Pressure The answer and the
care-free manner in which it was given is as perplexing as it is shocking.
“Judges don’t like pressure. I am trying to remove part of the elite. The trial
will be after elections. New elite in power helping to punish the bad guys,”
reads the email. The prosecutor then proceeded to make a statement that implies
that they were looking beyond the courtroom: “Judges don’t think in the same
terms. They are focusing in the courtroom and have baby skin.” ALSO READ: Let's
ensure all eligible voters cast the ballot, calm prevails Both Ocampo and his
successor Fatou Bensouda have previously and severally denied that the cases
were politically contrived. On Friday, the ICC prosecution said the email and
its contents “are unknown to Prosecutor Bensouda and her office”. They said the
matter ought to be addressed to the individuals who “purportedly engaged in the
exchange”. “The Office of the Prosecutor is, nonetheless, taking all necessary
steps to verify the authenticity of the email,” Bensouda’s office said. At the
time of the email – February 14, 2011 – Ocampo had just lodged an application
seeking the summonses of the six suspects – Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura,
Hussein Ali, William Ruto, Henry Kosgey and Joshua arap Sang. Uhuru was then
serving as Deputy Prime Minister, Ruto a Cabinet minister, Muthaura head of
civil service, Ali police commissioner, Kosgey minister and Sang a radio host.
Incidentally, the same day the email was sent out, Sang had lodged an
application in the court seeking, among other things, that “Mr Louis Moreno
Ocampo be disqualified from prosecuting the Kenyan situation and the Kenyan
case including any other or further investigation.” Sang said Ocampo was acting
out of “ulterior motives that are unrelated to the cause of justice” and was
possibly incompetent or disinterested in competently investigating the Kenyan
situation. ALSO READ: Polls needn't be Armageddon, love and care for thy
neighbor Before the judges could rule on Sang’s request, and as though picking
on his concerns, they requested Ocampo to hand in all witness statements he had
used as a basis for seeking summonses against the six. In a judgment issued two
days after making the request to Ocampo, the three pre-trial judges – Ekaterina
Trendafilova, Hans-Peter Kaul and Cuno Tarfusser – refused to entertain all
Sang’s concerns, except the one raising credibility issues against Ocampo. They
nevertheless refused to grant his request to disqualify Ocampo, with a finding
that they had no competence to deal with such a request. The email conversation
is titled “Re: Musa Hilal” in possible reference to the Sudanese tribal leader
and special advisor to President Omar Bashir, who the court had indicted. The
conversation also discussed the Congo DRC case, the situation in Darfur and the
US support for the ICC, among other things. From the way the email is
structured, it looks like the woman activist sought to understand a number of
matters in the court and flagged them out in the conversation. In the first
question, she sought to understand why the ICC prosecution was seeking to tie
Rwandan President Paul Kagame to suspect and Congo DRC militia leader Bosco
Ntaganda. She expressed her frustrations with the US government policy on
Africa and the manner of support for the court. Proxy force ALSO READ: Raila:
NASA’s strength of numbers will shame them In response, the ex-prosecutor
appears quite pleased with the woman’s quest for “reasons and understanding”.
He called her out, “My dear *** (name redacted)... my comments in your text,”
and proceeded to respond in-line and in bold. “Kagame was behind Bosco and
Nkunda. It was a proxy force to attack the Hutu’s. I need Kagame not protecting
Bosco. I agree (that Kagame does not have an ICC arrest warrant), that is why I
tried to work with him. He has to be on my side,” Ocampo says. On the US
support for the court, the ex-prosecutor sounds dejected in the email. He says
President Barack Obama “focuses on three priorities – Iraq, Afghanistan and
Middle East – and abandoned the rest, Darfur or Korea”. When the woman wonders
why the Americans are not doing enough to “use the court more”, Ocampo thunders
back, brutally so: “It is not the American logic. Law is for inside USA.
Outside is power.” RELATED TOPICS:
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