Jackal News Home » Politics » BREAKING: Boycotting ICC Witnesses to be Paid Over The Weekend to Testify Against William Ruto BREAKING: Boycotting ICC Witnesses to be Paid Over The Weekend to Testify Against William Ruto Posted in: Politics|September 11, 2013 BREAKING: Boycotting ICC Witnesses to be Paid Over The Weekend to Testify Against William Ruto 3 BY BOGONKO BOSIRE Witnesses who’ve refused to testify against Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are demanding more money and are expected to be paid over the weekend, sources told the Jackal News, on the day the tribunal judges adjourned the case to allow the prosecutors to bring in witnesses. A day after Ruto’s trial opened, the presiding ICC judges granted the prosecution an adjournment until Tuesday next when it promised to deliver the first witness. Sources said the tribunal’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has instructed registrar’s office to respond to their needs by the weekend. “The remain reason why the witnesses are not willing to testify is because they are demanding more money. They are expected to be paid over the weekend,” a reliable source told the Jackal News. While granting the adjournment, the judges expressed exasperation at the prosecution for making such a move on the trial’s first day. The registrar, meanwhile works through the Victims and Witnesses Unit, a neutral service provider with a statutory mandate to provide protection, support and other appropriate assistance to witnesses and victims who appear before the court, in line with the Rome Statute, a complicated international charter that created the court. The unit works through raft intermediaries. Unless the witnesses are paid the extra money they are demanding, its likely they would boycott attending the hearings, throwing a spanner in the works, sources said. “In order to ensure their psychological well-being, dignity and privacy, the Victims and Witnesses Unit provides support services and assistance to witnesses and victims who appear before the Court when required, based on an assessment of their individual needs,” according to court documents. Deputy President Ruto is expected to arrive in Nairobi on Thursday then return to the Hague on Monday ahead of the following day’s resumption of the hearings. Ruto alongside the little-known radio journalist Joshua arap Sang have pleaded not guilty to the crimes against humanity charges, which the prosecutors claim, stem from the 2007/08 post-elections violence that claimed between 1,000 and 1,500 people and displaced hundreds of thousands others. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is facing separate charges, is expected in the ICC tribunal on November 12. Analysts speculate the case against him is weak. Al though the defence lawyers have asked Bensouda to honourably withdraw the charges, dismissing them as “fictitious, it is unlikely the Gambian would cede ground at this time, with analysts warning that it would spell doom for the ICC. Despite that, several witnesses have withdrawn from both cases, prompting the public to change its attitude at the landmark cases, which have forced the Kenyan parliament to start a legal procedure that would prompt the East African Nation to with draw from the Rome Statute. The Kenyan leaders believe they will be found not guilty, and therefore vindicated, according to the Daily Maverick, a South African online journal. The prosecution has made a number of mistakes, and have already earned a vicious tongue-lashing from Christine van den Wyngaert, one of the presiding judges (who has subsequently excused herself from the case, citing workload). Van den Wyngaert did not pull her punches: “… there are serious questions as to whether the prosecution conducted a full and thorough investigation of the case against the accused prior to confirmation … the prosecution offers no cogent and sufficiently specific justification for why so many witnesses in this case were only interviewed for the first time post-confirmation … there can be no excuse for the prosecution’s negligent attitude towards verifying the trustworthiness of its evidence.” Another prosecution error came to light this week, according to the Daily Maverick, a South African online journal, this one even more fundamental. It emerged in a hearing that somehow the charges pressed by the prosecution against Ruto and Sang only cover events in 2008, meaning that atrocities committed in on 30 and 31 December 2007 are not within the scope of this trial. An attempt to change this was thrown out by the court, although the prosecution will appeal. Still, it’s another disturbing sign that the prosecution is not firmly in control of this process. Making their job even harder are the continual threats and intimidations directed towards key witnesses which have led to a number dropping out – as many as 33, according to some reports (the ICC has declined to confirm this). “In Kenya we have seen unprecedented levels of threats to witnesses. We have also seen unprecedented reports of witnesses allegedly withdrawing,” said prosecution spokesman Phakiso Mochochoko. This is hardly a surprise. Given the nature of the charges against the accused, and the fact that two of the three accused now occupy the most powerful positions in the country, it would take an exceptionally brave witness to take the stand against any of them.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 16:32:25 +0000
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