We have strong case against Gicheru, ICC investigator states

Yesterday, an expert witness in Paul Gicheru’s prosecution at the International Criminal Court gave an outline of what led to the lawyer’s warrant of arrest for allegedly buying witnesses in Deputy President William Ruto’s case.

After the detectives produced sufficient evidence against Gicheru, Philip Bett, and journalist Walter Barasa, a warrant was issued against them, according to P-0730, who is the sixth prosecution witness in Gicheru’s trial.

“The review of evidence suggested that the evidence was solid enough to ask for an arrest warrant for them,” said the lead investigator in the case, a witness.

Witnesses should be named.

The OTP investigator told the court about the difficulties they experienced while probing the bribery allegations, claiming that the Kenyan government was unwilling to cooperate.

“I was concerned about three things. The first was the Kenyan government’s level of cooperation. The second is the ability to gain access to crime scenes, and the third is dishonesty, or the ability to distinguish between truthful and false statements,” he told the court.

Investigators claimed that they were careful not to put the witnesses in danger by contacting them.

“And why would the identification of the suspects, potential suspects, to the Kenyan authorities be an issue to the investigation,?” asked the prosecutor.

“I have an obligation to look at the safety of all the people I contact that includes suspects and in this particular case, suspects could come to risk” he replied.

According to him, witness P564 was found dead on December 3 2013 and the conclusion was that it was murder.

“Why would you believe that his death or his murder had anything to do with this case,?” the prosecutor asked.

“I believe he was involved in the interference with P-15. Who signed an affidavit recanting his ICC statement around the 8th of February 2013,” he said.

The witness further said they were recommended not to visit the Rift Valley region in 2013 because it was assessed to be risky.

“The area at that time was sympathetic to the suspect in the main case, Mr Ruto, Mr Sang and operating there and speaking to people there might result in the price of being against them,” he told the court.

Gicheru is facing eight counts relating to corruptly influencing witnesses regarding cases from the situation in Kenya.