NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 30 – The Trial Chamber in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s International Criminal Court (ICC) trial been reconstituted to exclude Nigerian Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji and include Judge Geoffrey Henderson of Trinidad and Tobago.
A communiqué issued by the court on Thursday explained that the changes were occasioned by a request from judge Eboe-Osuji.
“On January 30, the Presidency of the ICC decided to reconstitute Trial Chamber V(b) in the case The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, following the request of Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji. As of February 1, 2014, Judge Geoffrey Henderson will replace Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji on the bench,” the communiqué read.
Eboe-Osuji however remains the Presiding Judge in Trial Chamber V(a) which continues to hear the case against Deputy President William Ruto and former Kass FM broadcaster Joshua arap Sang.
The change comes as a status conference in President Kenyatta’s case is scheduled for February 5.
The case has been put off indefinitely after the Prosecution said it required time to ascertain if there is sufficient evidence to continue Kenyatta’s trial.
Judges Kuniko Ozaki and Robert Fremr remain on Trial Chamber V(b) and Eboe-Osuji’s request for excusal could have been occasioned by the fact that he was sitting on both Kenyan cases.
Henderson became an ICC judge on December 12, 2013 after serving as a Judge as well as a Director of Public Prosecutions in Trinidad and Tobago.
He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Bachelor of Laws and a Legal Education Certificate from the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad as well as a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, University of Nova Scotia.
Eboe-Osuji on the other hand was Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Dr Navi Pillay before being elected an ICC Judge by the African Group of States in 2012.
