NETHERLANDS: International Criminal Court prosecutors say Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's trial doomed unless Nairobi helps

Record ID: 362823

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: International Criminal Court prosecutors say Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's trial doomed unless Nairobi helps
  • Date: 5th February 2014
  • Summary: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (FEBRUARY 5, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTORS' OFFICES SIGN FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
  • Embargoed: 20th February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA305PSZPC898NNTQGNFG374RUV
  • Story Text: The International Criminal Court has no realistic chance of successfully prosecuting Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in the face of the Nairobi government's non-compliance, prosecutors said on Wednesday (February 5).
    Prosecutors are asking judges to rule that Kenya is not meeting its obligations to the court and to adjourn the trial until it turns over further material in a case which has driven a wedge between African countries and the ICC's Western backers.
    "The request which is now before the court from the prosecution is that the trial should continue to be adjourned, without a date being fixed for the opening of the trial, until such time as the government of Kenya complies with its treaty obligations under the statute of Rome," prosecution lawyer Benjamin Gumpert said.
    But a lawyer for Kenyatta, Steven Kay, said the Kenyan government had been right to withhold the financial records since the requests for them had been made directly by prosecutors, not by the court as a whole.
    "The government of Kenya has maintained consistently that requests from the prosecution should come through the court, and by that they mean the trial chamber," Kay said.
    Prosecutors told the court they needed access to Kenyatta's financial records, which they say might show that he had indirectly paid large sums of money to perpetrators of a wave of post-election violence that swept Kenya six years ago.
    "One of the allegations we make against Mr. Kenyatta is that he, personally, provided very large quantities of money, which were funnelled down through his intermediaries and messengers and delivered in the form of cash, to the perpetrators of the violence. The request for assistance which we made, was for Mr. Kenyatta's financial records, because, we suggest, if he did indeed make such financial contributions, there would likely be records of movement of funds at the relevant time. It in fact would be important, both for the prosecution and the defence, if there were no such movements of funds, that would be a cardinal point to suggest his innocence," Gumpert told the court.
    Presiding judge Kuniko Ozaki said the court would not rule on requests by the prosecution or the defence on Wednesday.
    The trial was postponed for a fourth time last month when prosecutors said another witness had withdrawn, and requested more time to gather evidence. They say their witnesses have been blackmailed or intimidated into withdrawing.
    "The financial information about movement of the funds - do you think it's enough to sustain your charges, even without witnesses 11 and 12", Ozaki asked.
    In a Jan. 31 court filing, prosecutors said a "climate of fear" had weakened their case against Kenyatta, and said judges should rule that Kenya was in breach of its obligation to help the court's investigators.
    "Absent the financial records of which we have spoken, the remaining stones unturned are better characterised as pebbles, and realistic prospect that turning them will yield real potentially conclusive evidence is minimal," Gumpert told the judges.
    Kenyatta is charged with crimes against humanity related to to the violence in early 2008 when 1,200 died and thousands were driven from their homes. He denies the charges.
    The trial is important to the ICC, which has secured only one conviction and suffered a string of collapsed cases since it was set up 11 years ago. Kenya says the court risks destabilising east Africa if it presses on with the charges.
    Western countries, while keen to back the ICC, are also anxious to maintain relations with Kenya, seen as a key ally in the battle against militant Islamism in neighbouring Somalia.
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