“The Prosecution suggests that a start date immediately after the Court’s summer recess may be appropriate, although it is ready to start trial earlier, should the Chamber so order,” read a statement from Bensouda.
The court’s summer recess is scheduled from July 19 to August 12.
The April 10 trial date for William Ruto and Joshua Sang as well as the April 11 for Uhuru Kenyatta and Francis Muthaura have thus been vacated for a date to be set later.
In the statement, Bensouda stated that it was necessary for the Kenyan public , particularly the victims of the 2007-2008 post-election violence, to be assured that the trial will, in fact, commence in the coming months.
The Government had earlier, through Attorney General Githu Muigai, hinted that it wanted The Hague trials against two presidential candidates; Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto postponed because of the likelihood of a run-off in the race to State House.
Before the February 14 status conference, the ICC Chief Prosecutor had however said that no changes were going to be made to the timetable on the Kenya cases.
source: standard Digital
