Post date: Mar 18, 2013 9:0:44 PM
Kenyans are sceptical about the crimes against humanity charges against Kenya's president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta after the collapse of the case against his co-accused.
NAIROBI, KENYA (MARCH 18, 2013)(REUTERS) - Lawyers for Kenya's president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta said charges of crimes against humanity against him should be withdrawn after the collapse of the case against his co-accused, but prosecutors at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) said they had new evidence.
Kenyatta, whose election earlier this month is being challenged by his rival, faces charges at the ICC over bloodshed in the aftermath of Kenya's 2007 election.On Monday (March 18), his lawyers said these were clearly now based on hearsay after a key witness in a linked case against former civil servant Francis Muthaura retracted their testimony.
Kenyatta and Muthaura were among six suspects initially charged by ICC prosecutors with orchestrating violence after the 2007 election, when some 1,200 people were killed.
The two prosecutions are based on a lot of the same evidence and both men have always denied any wrongdoing.
Steven Kay, the British barrister defending Kenyatta, said prosecutors should have dropped his case when they withdrew charges against Muthaura in a decision announced on Monday.
The case against Kenyatta, on charges of crimes against humanity during the 2007-2008 Kenyan elections, was made difficult by his current position, that of president-elect of the Republic of Kenya.
A number of Kenyans in Nairobi question the validity of the case against Kenyatta.
"How comes that no one has got no evidence, the other one has evidence, from where have they got this evidence from? And we understand that they have not come again to look for fresh evidence, so they are supposed to come back and collect the evidence which is incriminating the other one leaving the other one, but if they use the same evidence which was taken by the pre-trial chamber, it is supposed to be dropped," said businessman Robinson Combo.
On March 11, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda stated that the decision recantation of the testimony of a key witness forced her to drop all charges against Mr. Muthaura. Both the cases against Muthaura and Kenyatta were based on the same evidence.
"Rules of natural justice demand that, if Muthaura's case has been withdrawn then what other evidence do we have that is specific to Mr. Kenyatta that can make the trial last to its full end? So I think it was bringing a bit of pressure on…because you must be fair to both prosecution and defence. It was bringing a bit of pressure on the defence counsel, Steve Kay for Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta to put forward his case, because they said they only had two hours and after saying so much, they said he has to make written submissions. I think everybody wants to hear what he has to say so that the ICC chamber that is hearing the case can determine whether, do we proceed with case or do we push it back to the pre-trial chamber so that we can get the case moving forward or thrown out," said businessman Richard Mburu.
The Kenyatta case is an important test for the ICC, which was set up more than a decade ago as the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal but has only secured one conviction.
The son of Kenya's founding president, Kenyatta is set to become the first head of state to be actively defending charges at the ICC, making his case one of the highest-profile it has dealt with.