ICC judge refers Kenya to body overseeing court for non-cooperation in Uhuru’s case

Kenya has failed to comply with its obligations to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in the case of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, a judge ruled, referring the country for non-compliance.

The court found that “the Republic of Kenya had failed to comply with its obligations to cooperate with the ICC and referred the matter” to the court’s governing body, the court said in a statement on Monday.

Read: ICC judges terminate President Uhuru’s case

According to the Chamber, the non-cooperation has prevented the Court from exercising its functions and powers under the Statute.

“With the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta being terminated and considering the relevance of the materials sought in the Prosecutor’s request to current or future investigations, Trial Chamber V has considered a referral to the ASP appropriate for the purpose of fostering cooperation more broadly for the sake of any ongoing and/or future investigations and proceedings in the Kenyan situation,” the statement said.

The ruling comes after the Prosecution on November 29, 2013 filed an application for a finding of non-cooperation against the Kenyan Government, alleging that the Government had failed to comply with a request to produce records relating to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

However, in December 2014, the Trial Chamber rejected the application for referral of the matter to the ASP. The Prosecutor appealed this decision on March 20, 2015.

On August 19, 2015, the ICC Appeals Chamber reversed this first decision and remanded it to the Trial Chamber.

After receiving further observations from the ICC Prosecution, the Victims’ lawyers and the government of Kenya, the Trial Chamber recalled that it found, on December 3, 2014, that the approach of the Kenyan Government fell short of the standard of good faith cooperation required under the Rome Statute and further noted today that this situation had persisted even following a period of active judicial supervision and that the cooperation proceedings had reached a deadlock.

The Trial Chamber further noted that despite the passage of a further 18 months and notwithstanding the Kenyan Government’s continuing statutory obligation to comply with any cooperation request from the Court, it appears that no further progress has been made in implementing the Prosecutor’s request.