Kenya deputy president’s murders trial collapses

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS // The case against Kenya’s deputy president over deadly violence following the country’s 2007 presidential elections collapsed yesterday.

The presiding judge in the trial at the International Criminal Court said there was insufficient evidence that deputy president William Ruto was involved in the violence.

The judge said the reason for the lack of evidence was possibly “witness interference and political meddling”. The announcement marks the second time the court has had to admit defeat in its attempts to prosecute alleged ringleaders of the violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and forced 600,000 from their homes in Kenya. Mr Ruto had been charged alongside broadcaster Joshua Sang with murder, deportation and persecution for their alleged leading roles in the violence. The case against Mr Sang also collapsed yesterday.

A case against president Uhuru Kenyatta on similar charges collapsed in December 2014 amid prosecution claims of in- terference with witnesses and non- cooperation by authorities in Nairobi.

At the time, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda blamed Kenya for blocking her investigations and called it “a dark day for international criminal justice”. Three Kenyans have been charged with interfering with witnesses.

In yesterday’s decision, two members of the three- judge panel ordered the charges against Mr Ruto and Mr Sang to be dropped, although they said charges could be brought again if there was evidence.

According to a court state- ment, presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osuji also declared a mistrial, saying that “it cannot be discounted that the weaknesses in the prosecution case might be explained by the demonstrated incidence of tainting of the trial process by way of witness interference ... that was reasonably likely to intimidate witnesses”.

Appeals judges ruled in February that statements made by five witnesses who later changed their stories or refused to testify against Mr Ruto and Mr Sang, could not be used as evidence, a decision that likely led to the case’s collapse.

ICC prosecutors originally charged six Kenyans with crimes linked to the election violence. Charges have now been dropped against all six. The claims of widespread witness interference underscore a major problem facing the court, which was set up to prosecute suspects considered most responsible for atrocities. That means sometimes pursuing senior politicians and having to rely on their police and security forces for cooperation.

The judge raised concerns about witness interference