Four accused Kenyans ask ICC for more timeBy AFRICAREVIEW.COM | Thursday, February 14  2013 at  19:33

The four Kenyans facing charges of crimes against humanity want the International Criminal Court (ICC) to delay the start of their trial.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, former head of the civil service Francis Muthaura, former MP William Ruto and former radio presenter Joshua arap Sang petitioned ICC to delay their cases during a status conference Thursday.

Mr Kenyatta and Mr Muthaura defence team told Trial Chamber V judges Kuniko Ozaki, Christine Van den Wyngaert and Chile Eboe-Osuji to postpone the April 11 trial start date due to the introduction of new evidence by the prosecution at the last minute.

Lawyers Karim Khan for Mr Muthaura and Stevens Kay for Mr Kenyatta accused the prosecution of changing the nature of the cases facing them.

Mr Ruto and Mr Sang defence teams later urged the court to push the case back by four months from the last date of disclosure to allow exhaustive preparation.

The case is scheduled to start on April 10.

Mr Ruto attended the status conference through a video link at an undisclosed location in Nairobi.

However, Mr Sang flew to The Hague to attend in person.