{UAH} THE PROSECUTOR IS ASKING FOR A POSTPONMENT OF THIS CASE

'Not enough evidence for Kenyatta trial': ICC prosecutor

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A picture taken on May 7, 2013 shows Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) leaving a hotel in central London (AFP Photo/Andrew Cowie)

The Hague (AFP) - International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda admitted Thursday she no longer had enough evidence to try Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta for crimes against humanity, calling for a delay after witnesses pulled out.

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Kenyatta's repeatedly delayed trial on charges of masterminding violence after a 2007 election that left over 1,000 people dead and several hundred thousand displaced is set to start on February 5.

Bensouda said she took the "exceptional" decision after a key prosecution witness against Kenyatta said he was no longer willing to testify and another key witness confessed to giving false evidence concerning a "critical event" in the case.

"Having carefully considered my evidence and the impact of the two withdrawals, I have come to the conclusion that currently the case against Mr. Kenyatta does not satisfy the high evidentiary standards required at trial," Bensouda said in a statement.

"I therefore need time to complete efforts to obtain additional evidence, and to consider whether such evidence will enable my office to fully meet the evidentiary threshold required at trial," she said.

"It is precisely because of our dedication and sense of responsibility to the victims in this case that I have asked the judges presiding over the case for more time to undertake all remaining steps possible to strengthen the case to ensure justice for the victims," Bensouda said.

The trials of Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, on similar charges have been dogged by problems and delays, including witness withdrawal and Kenya's campaign to have the cases put on hold.

Ruto's trial began on September 10.

Arguments include allegations that the court is targeting Africans and that Kenya's leaders need to be available to tackle Al-Qaeda-linked militants who have turned neighbouring Somalia into a major global jihadist hub.

Both men have pledged their cooperation with the ICC, but both have also complained that the cases, parts of which they are obliged to attend in the Netherlands, were hampering their running of the country.

Bensouda's office has accused Kenya of not cooperating with the court, including by failing to provide what it says is critical evidence in Kenyatta's case.

Earlier this month, the UN Security Council rejected a draft resolution backed by African countries to suspend Kenyatta and Ruto's trials for a year.

African leaders frequently complain that the ICC discriminates against their continent.

Both Kenyatta and Ruto, his one-time foe and now political partner, have maintained their innocence of charges of stoking the worst violence in the east African country since independence in 1963.

ICC prosecutor seeks postponement of Kenyan president's trial

By Thomas Escritt 7 hours ago

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Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, accompanied by his wife Margaret, attends Mashujaa (Heroes) Day …

By Thomas Escritt

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court said on Thursday they did not have enough evidence to proceed with their case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, and asked judges to postpone it indefinitely.

The development is a major setback to the court, which has seen a string of high-profile cases collapse, but it could help defuse tensions with Kenya and its African Union allies, who have long called for the charges to be dropped.

In a statement, chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she could not proceed with the case after one witness asked to withdraw and another admitted to lying.

"Currently the case against Mr Kenyatta does not satisfy the high evidentiary standards required at trial," she said.

Kenyatta, whose trial had been due to start on February 5, is accused of stoking ethnic violence after Kenya's 2007 elections, orchestrating clashes in which some 1,200 people died. His deputy and former rival William Ruto, who faces similar charges, went on trial in The Hague this year.

Kenya's Attorney General Githu Muigai said the decision vindicated his belief that there was no case against Kenyatta.

"There was never any evidence to refer the matter ... in the first place and there was no evidence to confirm the charges in the second place and there was no evidence to commence trial in the third place," he told Reuters by telephone.

"I stand by that position I have held consistently."

Bensouda said she would continue to attempt to gather evidence to shore up the case against Kenyatta and would later decide if any new evidence was strong enough to merit a trial.

Since being elected president in March, Kenyatta has worked hard to rally African allies around a lobbying effort to have the charges against him dropped or his trial deferred.

The Kenyan government says the ICC's charges risk destabilising East Africa's economic powerhouse and the wider region at a time when it faces a growing threat from Islamist militants in neighbouring Somalia.

The ICC has scored just one conviction in its first decade, with weaknesses in witnesses' testimony often to blame for cases collapsing even before they came to trial.

Other high-profile suspects the court is attempting to try, including Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the late Libyan leader, are beyond its reach as their countries refuse to hand them over.

Bensouda said investigations in Kenya had posed "many challenges". She has in the past alleged that prosecution witnesses were intimidated or bribed into dropping their testimony against Kenyatta.

In an apparent admission that over-reliance on witness testimony has too often proven an Achilles' heel in the court's cases, prosecutors earlier this year requested extra funding to acquire forensic expertise.

 

 

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