ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has applied to be allowed to rely on testimonies of witnesses who dropped out of Deputy President William Ruto’s case.
This has prompted pundits and observers of the case to suggest that the evidence she has is weak and cannot send the Deputy President behind bars over the 2007/08 post-election violence.
She states in the application that the prosecution is compelled to resort to alternative methods to place before the chamber the relevant and cogent evidence that the witnesses would otherwise have provided.
“The central issue for determination in this request is the admissibility of records of prior interviews of missing and recanting witnesses who succumbed to improper influences,” she says.
She continues: “To establish the truth, the chamber should admit these records into evidence as substantive proof of their contents. Not to do so would deny the chamber the ability to assess the whole of the evidence. It would also reward an attempt to obstruct justice.”
According to the prosecutor, evidence already on record, together with that presented in support of her application, establishes the existence of an organised and effective scheme to persuade prosecution witnesses to withdraw or recant their evidence, through a combination of intimidation and bribery.
“The evidence establishes further that those responsible for this improper interference were, at the very least, acting for the benefit of the accused,” she says in the application which she filed on May 21.
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