New York Times
By RICK GLADSTONE
December 19,2013
The prosecution of Kenya’s president for crimes against humanity, the highest-profile trial undertaken by the International Criminal Court, appeared near collapse on Thursday when the prosecutor abruptly announced that she lacked sufficient evidence to proceed and was seeking an indefinite delay.
The prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement from the court at The Hague that she could no longer rely on two key witnesses needed to try the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, because one witness said he was no longer willing to testify and the other had confessed to giving false evidence.
“Having carefully considered my evidence and the impact of the two withdrawals, I have come to the conclusion that currently the case against Mr. Kenyatta does not satisfy the high evidentiary standards required at trial,” Ms. Bensouda said in the statement.
Her decision was a major and potentially fatal setback in the longstanding effort to try Mr. Kenyatta, who was accused, along with his deputy, William Ruto, of helping to orchestrate some of the postelection violence in Kenya six years ago that left more than 1,100 people dead. Mr. Ruto’s trial began on Sept. 10, but Mr. Kenyatta’s was not scheduled to start until Feb. 5. Read More…