International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda at past event. AFP PHOTO | SEYLLOU.
ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda wants Kenya stopped from
challenging a decision in which the country was found guilty of failing
to cooperate with the international court.
In a
decision made on December 3, 2014, the court found that Kenya was
non-compliant although it refused to refer the matter to the Assembly of
State Parties for further measures to be taken against the government.
In
her latest submission to the Appeals Chamber which will decide whether
to send Kenya to the ASP, Ms Bensouda said the issue of non-cooperation
was not appealed and should therefore not be challenged by the
government of Kenya.
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“This
factual finding was not appealed by the prosecution, nor by the GoK.
Rather, the prosecution’s appeal is limited to the question of whether
the Trial Chamber, having made this finding, erred—either in law or in
the exercise of its discretion—by not referring the GoK to the Assembly
of States Parties,” she said.
She was responding to a
request by Attorney General Githu Muigai who wanted the government to be
given more time to respond to issues raised by the Africa Centre for
Open Governance (Africog).
Although she did not object
the government’s request to be allowed to submit a response by yesterday
instead of the initially set deadline of May 15, she said the response
must not be used to raise matters that are not subject to the
prosecution’s appeal. The chamber extended the deadline to May 22.
Ms
Bensouda also wanted Kenya barred from raising afresh issues of whether
domestic law prevented it from complying with the Prosecution’s
requests for cooperation, or challenging a separate decision by the
Trial Chamber that “any purported deficiency in domestic legal
procedures does not protect a State Party from complying with its
obligation to cooperate with the Court”.
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