Ruto Hague trial adjourned as key witness withdrawn

By FELIX OLICK

Kenya: The trial of Deputy President William Ruto at The Hague has been adjourned again after only three days of hearing, even as he started demanding termination of his case.

Ruto’s case was pushed to June 16 due to a witness hitch, with the judges bashing the prosecution for lack of preparedness.

“The chamber expresses very serious concerns and dissatisfaction that we only had two days of this session which was to last for four weeks,” said Presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osiji as he adjourned the proceedings Friday.

“All available measures must be employed by the prosecution to ensure this is not repeated.”

But Ruto’s Lead Counsel Karim Khan began calling for a termination of the case after the prosecution withdrew a key witness.

The testimony of the witness only identified by the pseudonym P-0025, was relied on to confirm the charges against Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Sang by the Pre-Trial Chamber in 2012.

Witness P-0025 was withdrawn by the prosecution a few hours before taking to the stand as they also applied for the adjournment of the case.

However, his evidence was used 25 times during the pre-trial hearing and about 17 times when the prosecution briefed the court on the need to commence the case.

He is the witness who, as the link-person for the prosecution, also procured about five other witnesses.

“We do not oppose the withdrawal of the witness. But there is a bigger question on witness credibility in this case that must be addressed and we call upon the prosecution to withdraw this case,” demanded Khan.

Friday, it also emerged that the prosecution could be remaining with only four witnesses to call in apart from the eight witnesses that the Chamber has ordered to testify.

However, Ruto, Sang and Attorney General Githu Muigai have already indicated they intend to appeal the ruling on witness compulsion.

In their decision Friday, the three-judge panel ruled that Ruto who is still at The Hague, would be required in the courtroom for two days when the trials resume next month.

The session is supposed to last till July 16.

Senior trial lawyer Anton Steynberg admitted that during the witness’s preparation, it became clear that the witness was unable to “accurately recall, or give a coherent and consistent account of critical parts of the evidence the Prosecution had intended to lead from the witness.”

Nearly a half of the witnesses the prosecution lined up in the two Kenyan cases have withdrawn.