Credit: icc-cpi.int / The Hague, Netherlands-based headquarters of the International Criminal Court.

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Kenya lawyer Paul Gicheru has surrendered to the authorities of The Netherlands this  week for allegedly corruptly influencing International Criminal Court witnesses, the ICC said.  Gicheru surrendered to the authoritie pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC.  Gicheru, a lawyer formerly based in Kenya, is suspected of offences against the administration of justice consisting in corruptly influencing witnesses of the Court. The Court, through the Registry services, submitted a cooperation request to the Dutch authorities for the arrest and surrender of Gicheru to the Court upon completion of the necessary national arrest proceedings.  Gicheru is  accused of bribing witnesses in an ICC trial of Kenyan Vice President William Ruto.  The ICC abandoned its case against Ruto, dismissing it  in 2016. The ICC ruled there was insufficient evidence, but it refused to acquit him. Ruto was accused of  murder, deportation and persecution charges during violence that followed the 2007 elections in which about 1,200 people were killed.  Ruto denied all the charges.

Credit: Wikipedia Commons /   Former Kenya VP  William  Ruto  

The arrest warrant against Gicheru and Philip Kipkoech Bett was issued under seal on 10 March 2015  unsealed on 10 September 2015. Philip Kipkoech Bett is not in ICC custody.   According to the ICC Arrest Warrant:

“The Prosecutor alleges the individual criminal responsibility of Paul Gicheru and Philip Kipkoech Bett, under six counts with respect to six witnesses of the Court, for offences against the administration of justice of corruptly influencing a witness under article 70(1)(c) of the Statute, inconjunction with article 25(3)(a) of the Statute, or alternatively, article 25(3)(d), or (c), or, with respect to Paul Gicheru only, article 25(3)(b) of the Statute.”

“The Prosecutor further alleges, and the evidence demonstrates, to the requisite standard of “reasonable grounds to believe” in accordance with article 58(1) of the Statute, that there has existed, from at least April 2013, a criminal scheme designed to systematically approach and corruptly influence witnesses of the Prosecutor through bribery and other methods of inducements in exchange for their withdrawal as prosecution witnesses and/or recantation of their prior statements to the Prosecutor. The evidence indicates that said scheme has been run in an organised manner and with a clear distribution of tasks. In particular, Paul Gicheru has been a manager and coordinator of the scheme, meaning that he has finalised agreements with corrupted witnesses, organised the formalisation of their withdrawal and handled the payment. The role of Philip Kipkoech Bett has been to contact the witnesses, at least some of whom they knew previously, and to make initial proposals before bringing them to the managers, particularly Paul Gicheru.  The evidence indicates that a similar role within the same scheme was exercised by Walter Osapiri Barasa, for whom a warrant of arrest has been issued by the Court on 2 August 2013.10 There is also information that those witnesses who were successfully corrupted were enticed to make contact with other witnesses, for the purpose of their corruption.”

“As alleged by the Prosecutor, and according to the evidence, Philip Kipkoech Bett, together with another individual, approached Witness P-397, informed the witness of the scheme for corrupting witnesses, and took the witness to Paul Gicheru, who negotiated and agreed with the witness that five million Kenyan shillings (KES) would be paid in exchange of the witness’s withdrawal as a witness of the Prosecutor. On 27 and 30 April 2013, Paul Gicheru paid Witness P-397 two cash instalments of 600,000 and 400,000 KES, respectively.”