- This facility is where lawyer Paul Gicheru was taken on Tuesday.
- The detention centre has hosted prominent detainees accused of various atrocities, including war crimes.
Image: Medium.com
By Kenyan living standards, the ICC detention centre is a luxury hotel.
The detainees are entitled to three meals a day, as well as the option of cooking for themselves as they have a communal kitchen.
They are allowed unrestricted family visits — complete with a conjugal room — and if you are broke, you can do menial jobs within the facility to earn some income.
“They can purchase additional items, listed on the shopping list of the detention centre, as available, in order for them to adjust the meals provided to them, according to their taste and cultural requirements,” the ICC says on its website.
The daily programme of the detention centre allows detainees access to fresh air, recreational time and sports activities, including a gym.
This is where Kenyan lawyer and chairman of the Export Processing Zone Authority Paul Gicheru was taken on Tuesday ahead of the start of his trial at The Hague.
Gicheru is, however, expected to seek to be released on bail.
The detention centre has hosted prominent detainees accused of various atrocities including war crimes, like former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo.
“Laurent Gbagbo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, Bosco Ntaganda, Dominic Ongwen…we are family now, our bonds are sacred. For five years we shared everything, we ate and played football together,” said former Ivory Coast youth leader Charles Blé Goudé who was detained at The Hague.
The centre has multimedia facilities and offers a series of training, leisure and sports programmes.
ICC detainees have access to computers, TV, books and magazines.
Those who are poor have the right to call their lawyers free of charge during official working hours and can apply to benefit from the Family Visit Trust Fund.
The fund is meant to facilitate the travel of family members of detainees who are broke.
“The ICC detention centre operates in conformity with the highest international human rights standards for the treatment of detainees, such as the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules,” the ICC says in its website.
Each 10 square-metre cell is designed to hold one person only.
A standard cell contains a bed, desk, shelving, a cupboard, toilet, hand basin, TV and an intercom to contact the guards when the cell is locked.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has unrestricted access to the detention centre.
Its delegates pay unannounced visits to the facility to examine the treatment of detainees, their living conditions and their physical and psychological conditions, in conformity with widely accepted international standards