THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — A Kenyan lawyer accused of bribing witnesses made his first appearance before the International Criminal Court on Friday, denying that he tried to sway an investigation into post-election violence in the East Africa nation.
Paul Gicheru, who defended Kenyan Vice President William Ruto before the world’s only global court for atrocity crimes, turned himself into Kenya authorities last week to face charges of witness tampering in The Hague-based ICC.
“The allegations read out to me are not true, they are false,” he told the judges via livestream from the court’s detention center in Scheveningen, on the outskirts of The Hague. Friday’s pro forma hearing was held to confirm Gicheru’s identity and the charges against him.
Gicheru is accused of coordinating a scheme to bribe witnesses into recanting their testimony against Ruto as well as former journalist Joshua arap Sang. Ruto and Sang were indicated by the ICC in 2010 for crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution, stemming from violence in the aftermath of Kenya’s 2007 elections. The case against them collapsed in 2016.
Wearing a brown suit and matching tie, Gicheru told Presiding Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou, who he called “honorable lady judge,” that he intended to represent himself during the proceedings.
The court issued an arrest warrant in 2015 for Gicheru and his co-counsel, Philip Kipkoech Bett, after uncovering a scheme in which the pair allegedly offered six prosecution witnesses between $5,000 and $50,000 to withdraw from the case.
Both lawyers contested the arrest warrant and the Kenyan high court ruled in 2017 that it was invalid. The ICC has no enforcement mechanism and relies on parties to the Rome Statute, which created the court in 2002, to arrest suspects.
On Monday, Gicheru flew from the Kenyan capital Nairobi to Amsterdam, where he turned himself into Dutch authorities. It’s unclear why he chose to surrender now.
“There was no threat, there was no coercion,” he told the court Friday.
In her statement regarding Gicheru’s surrender, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda encouraged Kenya to hand over Bett as well as another man, Walter Barasa, who has also been accused of witness tampering related to the Kenyan investigation.
Speaking on behalf of the prosecutor’s office, lawyer Anton Steynberg expressed concern over Gicheru’s intention to represent himself, telling the court that while Gicheru is a lawyer, managing his own case might prove too challenging.
“I appreciate the concern of Mr. Steynberg,” Gicheru said, telling the court he’d consider it.
The ICC has taken up several cases over post-election violence in Kenya. The aftermath of the contested 2007 presidential election left an estimated 1,000 people dead and more than half a million people displaced. Cases against six suspects, including current Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, collapsed in part because of witness tampering.
Proceedings against Gicheru are expected to start in the coming months.
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