ICC assigns judges to examine Kenya inquiry request

THE HAGUE (AFP) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) said Friday it had assigned three judges to consider a prosecution request for an inquiry into Kenya's post-poll violence which claimed about 1,500 lives.

The move came a day after ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he would ask the court's judges to order a probe into Kenya's worst post-independence unrest.

"The presidency of the ICC issued a decision assigning the situation in the Republic of Kenya to Pre-Trial Chamber II composed of Judges Ekaterina Trendafilova, Hans-Peter Kaul and Cuno Tarfusser," said a court statement.

"The presidency had received from the prosecutor a letter, dated 5 November, 2009, indicating its intention to submit a request for the authorisation of an investigation into that situation."

Some 1,500 people were killed and another 300,000 displaced in a matter of weeks following presidential polls in December 27, 2007, in which then opposition chief Odinga accused Kibaki of having stolen the vote.

The ICC prosecutor had been in Nairobi for talks with President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

"I consider the crimes committed in Kenya are crimes against humanity. Therefore the gravity is there. Therefore I should proceed," Moreno-Ocampo told reporters after Thursday's meeting.

"So I informed them (that) in December I will request the judges of the International Criminal Court to order an investigation."

The ICC has been conducting a preliminary investigation into the violence since February 2008 and Moreno-Ocampo's office said in September that he was determined to prosecute those "most responsible".

The Kenyan government has yet to act on the recommendation of its own year-old inquiry that a special tribunal be set up.

Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan handed the ICC a list of suspects in July.

Kenya is a party to the ICC's founding Rome Statute, which determines that "the court may exercise its jurisdiction in situations where the alleged perpetrator is a national of a state party or where the crime was committed in the territory of a state party."

The prosecutor needs permission from the judges to start a full investigation.