Jurist Kenya lawyer makes first appearance at ICC following witness tampering charges

[Dadparvar]

Paul Gicheru, a Kenyan lawyer accused of witness tampering, made his first appearance before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a hearing Friday. Gicheru and his partner Philip Kipkoech Bett were both indicted on charges of witness tampering.

The ICC described Gicheru’s charges:

Paul Gicheru is suspected of offenses against the administration of justice consisting in corruptly influencing Prosecution witnesses. The ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has provided 58 annexes containing documentary evidence, including a number of witness statements and transcripts of interviews, official documents and correspondence. The OTP alleges, and the evidence demonstrates, that there has existed, from at least April 2013, a criminal scheme designed to systematically approach and corruptly influence witnesses of the OTP through bribery and other methods of inducements in exchange for their withdrawal as prosecution witnesses and/or recantation of their prior statements to the OTP. The evidence indicates that said scheme has been run in an organized 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 finalized agreements with corrupted witnesses, organized the formalization of their withdrawal and handled the payment.

During the hearing, the Pre-Trial Division of the ICC requested that the Pre-Trial Division president hear the case. However, Judge Tomoko Akane denied the request.

Gicheru and Bett were arrested in March 2015. Gicheru surrendered to the ICC on November 2.

The post Kenya lawyer makes first appearance at ICC following witness tampering charges appeared first on JURIST - News - Legal News & Commentary.

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