The International Criminal Court will sit for extended hours in the trial of Deputy President William Ruto and Joshua Sang to make up for the lost time.
Trial Chamber V(A) presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osuji also said the court would review the possibility of sitting on Wednesday next week when the trials were to take a break to allow another chamber use the courtroom.
“As we all know, we have lost some time in the trial due to events beyond our control. We are being forced to make up for the lost time,” judge Eboe-Osuji said Wednesday at the resumption of the trials that adjourned on September 23.
“We will be sitting extended hours today (Wednesday), tomorrow and possibly Friday. We will review Wednesday if the court is available,” the chamber said.
Hearings will also take place between October 7 and 11 with the rest of the time timetable still under review.
VARY CALENDAR
However, Justice Osuji was categorical that the trial will break on November 1 to pave way for the start of the case of President Kenyatta on November 12.
“The intention is not to vary the calendar beyond November 1. At the moment, the idea is to keep the schedule,” judge Osuji said.
The trials of Mr Ruto and Mr Sang adjourned on September 23 when the chamber granted the deputy president the request for excusal to return to Nairobi to attend to the Westgate terrorist attacks and its aftermath. The initial excusal of one week was extended by two days during the status conference last Friday, against the defence’s request for two more weeks.
The chamber is however yet to pronounce itself on whether there will be the initial break that was to start on October 4 to October 14, which now looks less likely.
Mr Sang’s lead counsel Katwa Kigen offered that his client was “happy to extend the sitting schedule to include Saturdays.”
Mr Ruto’s defence counsel Karim Khan said his client was ready to sit the extended hours up to 7pm as it was during the confirmation of charges hearings, including weekends.
UNMASK IDENTITY
On his part, the prosecution lead counsel Anton Steynberg invited the chamber to take into account the interest of the witness while making any decisions on the extended sitting hours.
The chamber will be expected to rule on the same but judge Osuji signalled that the sitting hours will be dictated by the International Labour Organisation standards.
Meanwhile, the first prosecution witness 536 continued with her testimony in private sessions.
The witness, who was also a victim of the Kiambaa Church arson attack on January 1, 2008 has been on the witness stand since September 17 excluding the break and on the day she could not testify after it emerged that certain individuals had attempted to unmask her identity and intimidate her family.
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