Kenyan lawyer Paul Gicheru made his first appearance on Friday before the International Criminal Court (ICC) denying all charges labelled against him.
Gicheru is among the three Kenyans whom the international court had been looking for interfering with its witnesses in the cases against humanity.
The Eldoret based lawyer presented himself voluntarily to ICC on Monday, saying that his step was not influenced by anybody.
The court took Gicheru through the six accounts that he is facing for tampering with its witnesses by influencing them to change their minds.
Gicheru appeared via a video-link technology from the Court’s Detention Centre, a move prompted by the coronavirus.
The first account was being the first co-perpetrator or for solicitation or inducement of the crime of influencing a witness by corruptly paying witness P397 Sh1 million and offering the witness Sh5 million in exchange for the witness to withdraw as ICC prosecution witness.
The court alleged that Gicheru committed the offense from April 2013 to January 2014 in Eldoret.
The second account was corruptly influencing the witness, by corruptly offering or paying witness P516 a bribe of at least Sh500,000 in order to withdraw as a prosecution witness, an incident committed on April-May, 2013 in Eldoret.
Count three is for corruptly influencing a witness. He is alleged to have corrupted to pay witness P613 a bride and offering the witness a job in order to withdraw as a prosecution witness.
The court alleged that Gicheru influenced witness P613 between April-September 2013 in Eldoret.
He is also alleged to have bribed witness PA100 with Sh1.5 million and Sh2.5 million to withdraw from the ICC prosecution list, an act committed in July 2013.
The lawyer is also claimed to have influenced witness P459 by offering the witness Sh2.5 million to withdraw as a prosecution witness, committed around September 2013.
The sixth account is for bribing witness P536 with at least Sh1 million or Sh1.4 million in order to withdraw as a prosecution witness.
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Responding to the allegations, Gicheru said that he was aware of the rights accorded to him by the Rome Court.
“Honourable Judge, on November 3, a representative of the registry informed me about my rights under article 167, and on that basis, I can affirm that those rights have given to me,” Gicheru said.
He added that:
“I surrendered myself first to the Dutch authorities on November 2, 2020. This surrender was without cohesion from anybody, it was voluntary and I did that at my own expense.”
He also admitted that he has been treated well since the surrender and the officers have been helpful to him.
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