Former ICC lawyer is dead: Was he assassinated or its normal death?

NAIROBI, Kenya - The former International Criminal Court – lawyer Paul Gicheru has been found dead at his home in Karen- Nairobi on Monday night. According to the Police Gicheru was found dead with the cause of his death yet to be known.

"He had late lunch and felt unwell and went to bed but he did not wake up," police said. Police said he was found unresponsive at about 7 pm.
"His son too collapsed and was taken to Karen hospital in stable condition," police added.

Police arrived at the scene later and announced a probe had been opened.

The Kenyan lawyer was accused of allegedly compromising witnesses that were to testify against the current President Dr. William Ruto.

His family confirmed the news earlier this morning promising to further reveal more details about their kin’s death tomorrow.

Mid this year ICC closed the trial of lawyer Gicheru over the alleged bribery of witnesses that were to testify against President Ruto concerning the 2007 post-election violence that left 1,200 people dead.

His lawyers and ICC prosecutors clashed in their counter-arguments at the end of the trial that lasted 19 months, where Ruto was mentioned multiple times.

During his trial judge, Miatta Maria Samba said the chamber will deliberate on the proceedings and, within a reasonable period, pronounce its decision on either conviction or acquittal.

In 2020 Mr Gicheru surrendered to the authorities of the Netherlands-based court pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by Pre-Trial Chamber II of ICC.

The arrest warrant against lawyer Gicheru and Philip Kipkoech Bett was issued in 2015 .by trial chamber Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova.

This was after chaos erupted on December 31, 2007, after the announcement of Mwai Kibaki as the presidential poll winner in a race he closely contested with ODM leader Raila Odinga.

Kenya’s Post Elections Violence and ICC findings

The 2007 post elections violence had over 1,000 people killed, 900 rape cases and sexual violence documented, and approximately 350,000 people were displaced.

ICC prosecutor alleged that there existed, from at least April 2013, a criminal scheme designed to systematically approach and corruptly influence witnesses of the Prosecutor through bribery and other methods of inducements in exchange for their withdrawal as prosecution witnesses and/or recantation of their prior statements to the Prosecutor.

The evidence indicated that lawyer Gicheru was the mastermind of the scheme, running it in a more organized manner with a clear distribution of tasks.

It also pointed out that Gicheru acted as the manager and coordinator of the scheme, meaning that he finalized agreements with corrupted witnesses, organized the formalization of their withdrawal, and handled the payment.

While Philip Kipkoech Bett’s role was to contact the witnesses, at least some of whom they knew previously, and to make initial proposals before bringing them to the manager, Mr. Gicheru.

Another who took part in the scheme according to ICC evidence is Walter Osapiri Barasa, for whom a warrant of arrest had been issued by the Court in 2013.

There was also information that those witnesses who were successfully corrupted were enticed to make contact with other witnesses, for the purpose of their corruption.

In the first case, he was accused of offering Sh5 million in exchange for a witness identified as P-397 withdrawing their testimony.

In respect to another witness identified as P-516, Mr. Gicheru met the witness, discussed and agreed on the terms of the witness's withdrawal, leading to the witness failing to attend a meeting with officials of the ICC.

It was further revealed by the ICC that lawyer Gicheru also promised witness P-Ksh 800,000 Sh1.5 million for the withdrawal of evidence. Before the start of the ICC trials, Mr. Gicheru was largely unknown to the public.

GAROWE ONLINE