Former International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo is a man under the scope following a damning dossier which has questioned his integrity.
In an expose by a conglomerate of media outlets including Germany’s Der Spiegel, France’s investigative website Mediapart; a leading Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, Dars Spiegel, Black Sea and European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) revealed that Ocampo actively played a role in having President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ICC case dismissed even after he left office in 2012.
Uhuru together with his Deputy William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua Sang had been charged at the Hague-based Court in Netherlands for crimes against humanity in the 2007/2008 post election violence.
A document analyzed by Black Sea clearly shows how Ocampo reached out to quarters in and outside the ICC seeking to solicit “an honorable” exit for Uhuru in the case.
The Black Sea report reveals Ocampo tried to reach out to former UN Secretary General Koffi Anan to have the court strike out Uhuru’s case on grounds of weak evidence but the whole thing done in a way that it does not embarrass the court.
“I think it is time to find an honourable exit for Kenyatta,” Ocampo told Annan further suggesting that he [Anan] should send an envoy to the ICC with specific instructions he should be “an African, not a lawyer.”
And Anan’s response was, “we are indeed living in interesting times….let’s wait and see.”
When contacted by Daily Nation to respond to the allegations, the former UN SG did not respond to e-mails.
Ocampo also did not respond to e-mails sent through his law firm, Moreno Ocampo LLC.
However, on October 1, he came out decrying a cyber attack on his online operations.
Hypothetically, he appeared to lay the blame on current job as a Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity to the Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.
He is conducting preliminary investigations to ascertain whether crimes against humanity were conducted in Venezuela.
“I can confirm I and some colleagues have been the focus of a cyber-attack. An investigation as to the extent of the attack and its perpetrators is underway and a criminal investigation is in process. I find notable that this massive hack occurs at a time when I have begun to investigate governments links to material support for terror and associated financing,” he said in a statement.
“Not for the first time in my 35 years of investigating people in power, selective and out of context information has already been distributed by parties clearly opposed to me and my work, leading to false and misleading reporting in several media outlets. I will not assist in authenticating information associated with the hack nor break attorney-client privilege,” added the statement.
But, legal representatives for victims for crimes against humanity by Uhuru, Mr Fergal Gaynor told Ocampo to “come clean”.
“To this day, the victims of the crimes committed during the PEV have not received true justice…If, as has been reported, Ocampo contacted Kofi Annan in order to try to give Kenyatta an ¨honourable exit¨ in respect of the charges that Ocampo himself had applied for, that would be scandalous. There is clearly a public interest in knowing who Ocampo was lobbying on behalf of Kenyatta, and why he was doing so,” said Gaynor.
Black Sea further discloses that Ocampo met Kenya’s UN Permanent Representative Ambassador Macharia Kamau to discuss the exit strategy in Uhuru’s case.
“Later on, the diplomat explains that he has contacted Kenyatta’s brother, who is ready to meet the former prosecutor in New York,” Black Sea further reveals.
Ocampo lays bare the strategy that should be used for Uhuru to get out of the fix.
“President Kenyatta should create a system to offer reparations to all the victims. In this way President Kenyatta could achieve a positive result and gain recognition inside and outside Kenya,” Ocampo remarked.
With the strategy in mind, Ocampo reached out to one of the court’s Staff, Sara Criscitelli who he tells to postpone Kenya’s case citing lack of cooperation.
“Blame them (Kenya) before they blame the prosecutor. We need to defend the office of the prosecutor. If they filed before us that the case should be dismissed for lack of evidence we will be badly exposed,” he purportedly told Criscitelli who has since left the court.
In response to the proposition, Criscitelli is hesitant citing “If we file something that suggests that a State can defeat the court simply by refusing to cooperate, that will be the death of the Court as a whole.”
Benosuda according to the dossier is alleged to have contacted Ocampo asking him not to discuss the content of the case with a third party- a plea that falls on deaf ears as Ocampo urges a third party to prepare compelling evidence.
The conversation is said to have taken place in New York at Shearman & Sterling law firm precisely.
In the end, Bensouda refuses to bow down to Ocampo’s demand and she is told: “Different people told me the evidence [in the Kenyan cases] is gone. Witnesses recanted their testimonies or refused to appear. I understand the difficult political environment, but when there is no evidence, a prosecutor does not go to court.”
Bensouda denied ever contacting her predecessor as media reports have it.
“My office has already stated, in response to media queries, that it has not initiated contact, sought advice or collaborated with the former ICC Prosecutor, Mr Ocampo, in relation to any of the situations or cases being handled by the Office or the Court since I assumed office as prosecutor. I have, in the past, personally made my position on this clear to Mr Ocampo and have asked him, in unequivocal terms, to refrain from any public pronouncement or activity that may, by virtue of his prior role as ICC prosecutor, be perceived to interfere with the activities of the office or harm its reputation,” she said