\n Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto's lawyer on Thursday urged the International Criminal Court to drop a crimes against humanity case against him, saying prosecutors had failed to prove his role in poll-linked bloodshed.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The evidence is palpably missing,\" Karim Khan told a three-judge bench at a hearing to assess whether Ruto has a case to answer for his involvement in deadly 2007-08 post-election violence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ruto, 49, and his co-accused, radio boss Joshua arap Sang, 40, face three crimes against humanity charges including murder, forcible deportation and persecution arising from the unrest after disputed elections in late 2007.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutors say more than 1,300 people died and 600,000 others were left homeless in the worst unrest in the east African powerhouse since independence from Britain in 1963.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ruto, dressed in a dark suit, light blue shirt and yellow tie, listened intently and nodded his head and smiled at times as Khan presented his arguments.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"One of the main characteristics... is that the key elements on which this case has been based have disappeared,\" said Khan.\n<\/p>\n
\n For instance, at an ICC hearing in September 2011 to determine whether Ruto should face trial, prosecutors alleged he had attended at least 11 meetings to set up a criminal network to carry out the violence.\n<\/p>\n
\n But no proof was presented during Ruto's trial that such meetings ever took place, Khan said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The prosecution is in dire straits in their bid to maintain that there was a criminal organisation that resembles at all what they said they would prove when this trial started,\" Khan said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Their case has completely broken down,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Violence broke out after opposition chief Raila Odinga from the Luo ethnic group accused then president Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, of rigging the elections.\n<\/p>\n
\n What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings of the Kikuyu people, who in turn launched reprisal attacks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Both Ruto and Sang reject the accusations and last year their lawyers filed a request for the world's only permanent war crimes court to drop the charges as there was \"no case to answer\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutors closed their case in September 2015 and the defence's case is yet to start.\n<\/p>\n
\n Judges are set to rule on the request at a later stage and may still deny the defence application, meaning the case would continue.\n<\/p>\n
\n ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in December 2014 dropped a twin case against Ruto's rival, now President Uhuru Kenyatta who faced similar charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n That announcement was the ICC's biggest setback since the court was established in 2002.\n<\/p>\n
\n It followed a long-running troubled case including allegations of witness intimidation, bribery and false testimony.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kenya has fought an international campaign to drop the cases and has led African accusations that the ICC is unfairly targeting the continent's leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto's lawyer on Thursday urged the International Criminal Court to drop a crimes against humanity case against him, saying prosecutors had failed to prove his role in poll-linked bloodshed. \"The evidence is palpably missing,\" Karim Khan told a three-judge bench at a hearing to assess whether Ruto has a case to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-25422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n