HARDTALK KENYA_ Anthony Mukwita, Anthony Mukwita, inked an interesting piece (Star,Zambia , Monday, October 21, 2013). · Mukwita said: “The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been criticised for targeting African leaders at the expense of offenders from the West… · One African is in sharp focus as African leaders debate the continent’s relations with the ICC in the face of President Uhuru and Deputy President William Ruto’s trial. Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of The Gambia, her suitability and record have for long been the subject of furious debate… · Bensouda served as Minister for Justice and Attorney General under current President Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in a coup against a democratically elected government… · While minister, the government was accused of harassing journalists, arresting the leader of opposition and 20 of his supporters on a fabricated murder charge, shooting dead 12 students during a protest against the state and for years refusing to hold elections… · Bensouda, clearly weighed down by the fact that 10 years and 10 billion dollars later the ICC has little to show and is under threat of being shut down, has allowed some of the lapses from her native country to follow her to The Hague… · Bensouda and the ICC largely used intermediaries to find witnesses for the Uhuru and Ruto cases. The ICC history of ‘outsourcing’ witness sourcing to local NGOs is well known and highly criticised… · In the court’s first completed case, against Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) was publicly accused by presiding judge Adrian Fulford of trying to use witnesses that had taken bribes from local human rights groups acting as intermediary organisations… · The cases against Mathieu Chui and Callixte Mbarushimana, from the DR Congo and Rwanda, respectively, have collapsed following public contraction of witness testimony. In these cases, local human rights organisations acted as intermediaries in sourcing witnesses… · The charges against Uhuru were brought and confirmed based on the evidence of Witness No. 4 (read James Maina Kabutu) who has changed his testimony four times and once retracted them in their entirety. The witness has been dismissed but the ICC still seeks to prosecute Uhuru without the testimony on which the charges were brought! · Steven Kay QC, Uhuru’s defence counsel commented during the hearings: “a key fact underlying the confirmed charges has been established to be based upon a lie”… (Star, Monday, October 21, 2013). · Mukwita said: “The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been criticised for targeting African leaders at the expense of offenders from the West… · One African is in sharp focus as African leaders debate the continent’s relations with the ICC in the face of President Uhuru and Deputy President William Ruto’s trial. Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of The Gambia, her suitability and record have for long been the subject of furious debate… · Bensouda served as Minister for Justice and Attorney General under current President Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in a coup against a democratically elected government… · While minister, the government was accused of harassing journalists, arresting the leader of opposition and 20 of his supporters on a fabricated murder charge, shooting dead 12 students during a protest against the state and for years refusing to hold elections… · Bensouda, clearly weighed down by the fact that 10 years and 10 billion dollars later the ICC has little to show and is under threat of being shut down, has allowed some of the lapses from her native country to follow her to The Hague… · Bensouda and the ICC largely used intermediaries to find witnesses for the Uhuru and Ruto cases. The ICC history of ‘outsourcing’ witness sourcing to local NGOs is well known and highly criticised… · In the court’s first completed case, against Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) was publicly accused by presiding judge Adrian Fulford of trying to use witnesses that had taken bribes from local human rights groups acting as intermediary organisations… · The cases against Mathieu Chui and Callixte Mbarushimana, from the DR Congo and Rwanda, respectively, have collapsed following public contraction of witness testimony. In these cases, local human rights organisations acted as intermediaries in sourcing witnesses… · The charges against Uhuru were brought and confirmed based on the evidence of Witness No. 4 (read James Maina Kabutu) who has changed his testimony four times and once retracted them in their entirety. The witness has been dismissed but the ICC still seeks to prosecute Uhuru without the testimony on which the charges were brought! · Steven Kay QC, Uhuru’s defence counsel commented during the hearings: “a key fact underlying the confirmed charges has been established to be based upon a lie”…
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 13:35:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015