JURIST - Paper Chase: Kenya presidential candidate asks ICC to postpone trial

[JURIST] Kenyan presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta [case materials] asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Thursday to postpone his trial. Kenyatta, a former finance minister, argues that his defense team needs more time [Reuters report] to respond to evidence revealed to them at the last minute leading up to the trial. The charges arise from Kenyatta's involvement in the violence following the disputed elections in December 2007 in which 1,200 people were killed and thousands more displaced. The trial is currently set to begin on April 11, just weeks after the upcoming presidential election.

Earlier this month Kenyatta and his co-defendant, former civil service chief Francis Muthaura [case material], asked [JURIST report] the ICC to review the decision to move forward with the trial. The two Kenyans had announced [JURIST report] in December that, despite their upcoming trials, they will be running together in the next presidential election, scheduled to take place next month. In October the ICC called for complete cooperation [JURIST report] from the Kenyan government in the investigation and trial process. In June the ICC expressed its desire to start the two Kenyan trials simultaneously [JURIST report] to avoid any appearance of bias in the March 2013 presidential election.