ICC Confirms Charges Against Kenyan Lawyer Paul Gicheru

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed charges against Kenyan lawyer Paul Gicheru.

Gicheru will be committed to trial for crimes against the administration of justice consisting in corruptly influencing witnesses of the court.

The Hague-based court’s Pre-Trial Chamber on Thursday said there are substantial grounds to believe Gicheru committed, as a co-perpetrator or under alternative modes of liability, offenses against the administration of justice.

He is said to have committed the offenses in Kenya between April 2013 and September 10th, 2015 when the criminal case against Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang was withdrawn.

“The offenses were allegedly committed in the furtherance of a common plan implemented by a group of persons including Mr. Gicheru, with the ultimate goal of undermining the Prosecution’s case in the Ruto and Sang case,” the ICC said in a statement.

The Chamber said Gicheru and his accomplices were found to have executed a well-orchestrated plan of interfering with key witnesses in the Ruto and Sang cases.

“Specifically, with relation to eight witnesses, Mr. Gicheru and other members of the common plan allegedly identified, located, and contacted the witnesses, offered and/or paid them financial or other benefits, and/or threatened or intimidated them, in order to induce them to withdraw as Prosecution witnesses, refuse to or cease cooperating with the Prosecution and/or the Court, and/or to recant the evidence which they had provided to the Prosecution.” 

The court also stated that the decision on the confirmation of the charges “does not establish the guilt of the accused person, who is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt by a trial chamber of the Court.”

Gicheru surrendered himself to the Dutch authorities on November 2nd, 2020, five years after the ICC issued a warrant of arrest against him and Philip Kipkoech Bett.