[AfricaRealities] ICC judges tell prosecutors to strengthen or drop Kenyatta case

 

ICC judges tell prosecutors to strengthen or drop Kenyatta case

11:06am EST

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court on Wednesday gave prosecutors a week to decide whether to proceed with their case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for crimes against humanity or to withdraw the charges.

Prosecutors say Kenyatta, accused of orchestrating a wave of deadly violence after Kenya's 2007 elections, has used his political power to obstruct their investigation, especially since becoming president last year. They had asked for the case to be suspended until they had enough evidence to proceed.

The cases against Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto are the highest-profile proceedings in the history of the court set up 11 years ago to try cases concerning grave international crimes that local courts cannot handle.

The court has finished only three cases, all involving little-known Congolese warlords, and has yet to show that it can hold the most powerful offenders to account.

Judges agreed that Kenya had not cooperated in "good faith" with the court, but decided against referring the matter to the body representing the court's 122 member states, saying a referral would not help bring about a fair trial.

Prosecutors did secure one small victory in that the court did not acquit Kenyatta of the charges, as his lawyers had requested. That means the charges could be brought again in future if more evidence becomes available.

Under the double jeopardy principle, an acquittal would have prevented prosecutors from ever again bringing charges related to Kenyatta's alleged involvement in the 2007-2008 violence, in which 1,200 were killed.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Tom Heneghan)

SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
Google+: https://plus.google.com/110493390983174363421/posts
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9B4024D0AE764F3D
***Fuseau horaire domestique:
heure normale de la côte Est des Etats-Unis et Canada (GMT-05:00)***

---

Posted by: Jean Bosco Sibomana <sibomanaxyz999@gmail.com>

---

__._,_.___

---

Posted by: Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com>

---

Reply via web post

•

Reply to sender

•

Reply to group

•

Start a New Topic

•

Messages in this topic (1)

----------------------------------------------------------
The Voice of the Poor, the Weak and Powerless.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Post message:  AfricaRealities@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: AfricaRealities-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: AfricaRealities-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: AfricaRealities-owner@yahoogroups.com
__________________________________________________________________

Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-http://www.africarealities.com/

-https://www.facebook.com/africarealities

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New International Scholarships opportunities: http://www.scholarshipsgate.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visit Your Group

• Privacy • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use

.

__,_._,___