Background information on the Chamber’s process of ruling on summons to appear or warrants of arrest

On 31 March 2010, Pre-trial Chamber II, by majority, issued its decision authorizing the Prosecutor to commence an investigation into the situation in the Republic of Kenya in relation to crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the Court committed between 1 June 2005 and 26 November 2009. On 15 December 2010, the Prosecutor, after conducting his investigations, submitted to Pre-Trial Chamber II two applications under article 58 of the Rome Statute requesting the issuance of summonses to appear for William Samoei Ruto, Henry Kiprono Kosgey, Joshua Arap Sang (case one) and Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohamed Hussein Ali (case two) for their alleged responsibility in the commission of crimes against humanity. In supporting his requests, the Prosecutor submitted to the Chamber several thousands of pages of documents.

There are different avenues available to the Chamber when ruling on the Prosecutor’s applications. The Chamber shall carefully review the evidence and material presented. If it is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person(s) committed the crimes alleged in the Prosecutor’s applications, it shall either issue warrants of arrest, or summons(es) to appear with or without conditions. The Chamber may also, in the course of its assessment of the documents submitted by the Prosecutor, decide to go back to him requesting more evidence or clarification in relation to any issue that may arise in the course of its assessment.

If the Chamber finds that the evidence provided by the Prosecutor is not sufficient to meet the reasonable grounds standard, it shall decline to issue either warrants of arrest or summons(es) to appear. The Prosecutor may thereafter re-apply if he managed to secure new evidence in order to meet the reasonable grounds standard.

The Chamber will issue summonses to appear if it is satisfied that summonses are sufficient to ensure the appearance before the Court of those persons against whom it has determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have committed the crimes alleged in the Prosecutor’s applications. If the Chamber is not satisfied that summonses are sufficient to ensure such appearance, it will issue warrants of arrest instead.

In the event that the Chamber decides to issue the summonses to appear, it shall set a date for the initial appearance of these persons. The Chamber may issue those summonses with or without conditions. The Chamber will decide which conditions, if any, it wants to set. The conditions requested by the Prosecutor in his applications are simply indicative for the Chamber. In the event that a person has failed to comply with one or more of the obligations as imposed by the Chamber, the Chamber may, at the request of the Prosecutor or on its own initiative, issue a warrant of arrest in respect of the person.

There is no time-limit within which the Chamber must decide on the Prosecutor’s applications for summonses to appear against the six persons. The Chamber will act expeditiously taking into consideration the amount of documents to be analyzed.

For further information, please contact Jelena Vukasinovic, Associate Legal Outreach Officer, by telephone at: +31 (0)70 515-8094 or by e-mail at: jelena.vukasinovic@icc-cpi.int.

You can also follow the Court’s activities on YouTube and Twitter.