Judges to again weigh whether the Kenyan government cooperated with prosecutors
By VALENTINA POP
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have charged Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto (C) with crimes against humanity in connection with violence following the country’s 2007 elections. Similar charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta (R) have been dropped. Both men pictured here on July 25 before a meeting with visiting U.S. President Barack Obama. PHOTO: REUTERS
BRUSSELS—An appeals panel of the International Criminal Court ordered the tribunal’s trial judges on Wednesday to reconsider whether Kenya has cooperated with its attempts to prosecute President Uhuru Kenyatta and other top Kenyan officials for crimes against humanity.
A request by prosecutors to find the Kenyan government in violation of its obligation under ICC statutes to aid the court’s investigators and prosecutors was rejected by a three-judge panel in December.
The decision was appealed, and in her ruling Wednesday, Judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi said trial judges had failed to determine whether all judicial measures had been exhausted to obtain the Kenyan government’s cooperation.
The Nairobi government, she said, was still required to provide documents and other assistance to The Hague-based court even though charges of crimes against humanity against Mr. Kenyatta, related to postelection violence in 2007-2008, have been dropped.
If the court rules it has failed to cooperate fully with its investigations, the Kenyan government could be referred to the ICC’s member states or the U.N. Security Council for action.
A spokesman for the Kenyan president didn’t respond to requests for comment about Wednesday’s decision.
ICC prosecutors dropped their charges against Mr. Kenyatta in December, saying Kenyan officials had obstructed their probe and failed to protect witnesses from intimidation. They had also allowed the identities of witnesses to be disclosed on social media, the prosecutors said.
Mr. Kenyatta was accused of murder, forcible transfer, rape and other crimes against humanity in connection with the ethnic attacks, protests and police reprisals that followed Kenya’s December 2007 general election, allegations he denied. Some 1,300 people were killed in the bloodshed.
Mr. Kenyatta was leader of the opposition at the time, and Mwai Kibaki, who emerged as the winner of disputed election, appointed him finance minister.
Charges of murder, forcible transfer and persecution related to the postelection violence remain pending against Kenya’s deputy president, William Ruto. Two Kenyan journalists, Joshua Arap Sang and Walter Osapiri Barasa, are also accused of aiding and abetting these crimes. All three have pleaded innocent.
The ICC has found Malawi, Chad and Sudan at fault for obstructing efforts to bring Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir before the tribunal to face charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in western Darfur province.
Libya has also been ruled noncompliant with its obligations as an ICC member state for refusing to deliver Saif Al-Islam Gadhafi, a son of the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi, to The Hague.
—Heidi Vogt in Nairobi contributed to this article.
Write to Valentina Pop at [email protected]