International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Wednesday explained why she lost the case against Deputy President William Ruto and Journalist Joshua Arap Sang.
In a statement, Bensouda strongly blamed the Government of Kenya for inhibiting her cause to ensure justice was served to the victims of the 2007/2008 post election violence.
Bensouda stated that in as much as Kenya tried to appear to be co-operating with the Hague-based court as per the Rome Statute requirement, it was doing so impartially hence posing a great challenge to her work.
“Despite repeated assurances of cooperation with the Court, the Government of Kenya provided only selective assistance to the Prosecution. The net result is that my Office did not have full access to documents and records that may have had probative value or been able to further shed light on the truth.”Bensouda's statement read in part.
The Chief Prosecutor also indicated that Kenyan politicians and bloggers played a major role in interfering with witnesses in the case, something that made it difficult to prove that the accused were guilty of the criminal charges against them.
“At public prayer rallies, local politicians and community leaders branded Prosecution witnesses as liars who had all given false evidence. On social media, anonymous bloggers engaged in a steady stream of speculation about the identity of protected witnesses.” Bensouda stated.
She highlighted that 17 witnesses who had agreed to testify against the accused withdrew their testimonies, following what she termed as 'intimidation, social isolation and threats to prevent them from testifying'.
Bensouda noted that Kenya has also been reluctant to surrender suspects who have been called to face the ICC over witness obstruction.
“We also sought and obtained warrants of arrest for Messrs. Walter Osapiri Barasa, Paul Gicheru and Phillip Kipkoech Bett, on charges of obstructing the course of justice. None of the three suspects, who have been charged by the Court with obstructing the course of justice in this case, has yet been surrendered to the Court by the Government of Kenya,” Bensouda said.
The prosecutor concluded her statement deeply regretting what Kenya had done to its own people, who were seeking justice for the crimes committed against them.
"Ultimately, the hurdles we encountered in our efforts to investigate and prosecute have frustrated the course of justice for the victims in this case, and this must be a matter of profound regret." she noted.
The ICC on Tuesday, ruled that DP Ruto and Sang had no case to answer stating that: "The charges are hereby vacated and the accused are discharged from the process without prejudice to their presumption of innocence or the prosecutors right to re-prosecute at a later time".
Read Also: ICC VERDICT: Ruto, Sang Have No Case to Answer
