{{President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta has explained to trial judges at the International Criminal Court why he wants them to dismiss the case against him, or send it back to the Pre-Trial Chamber II.}}<\/p>\n
In submissions filed by his lawyers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins, Uhuru argues the prosecution has built a new case after discarding testimony used by Pre-Trial Chamber II judges to confirm the charges against him.<\/p>\n
Uhuru has asked the Trial Chamber judges to refer the decision to confirm charges against him back to the Pre-Trial Chamber II for reconsideration, arguing his committal to trial is based on false testimony.<\/p>\n
ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda dropped witness number four after he recanted his evidence and, subsequently, dropped the charges against Uhuru\u2019s co-accused, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura.<\/p>\n
Uhuru\u2019s legal team argues that as with Muthaura, the grounds for terminating the trial against Uhuru are based similarly on a lack of evidence to support the confirmation of charges decision.<\/p>\n
They cite Article 64(4) of the Statute saying failure by the prosecutor to disclose key evidence has an impact on the conduct of the proceedings now before the Trial Chamber.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defence submits that the withdrawal by the prosecutor of the charges against Muthaura requires the Chamber in this case to consider exercising its power to terminate the proceedings against Mr Kenyatta, in performing its functions prior to the commencement of trial,\u201d his lawyers argue.<\/p>\n
Uhuru has consistently reiterated that his case at The Hague cannot stand without that of Muthaura since the two cases are linked.<\/p>\n
He has argued the prosecution has consistently framed its case as a common plan involving the two of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny decision regarding the liability of Muthaura would necessarily, on the prosecution\u2019s own analysis, impact on any determination of Uhuru\u2019s liability. In short, the mode of liability as confirmed cannot be maintained against Uhuru without Muthaura,\u201d his lawyers said.<\/p>\n
{{False testimony}}<\/p>\n
Uhuru\u2019s lawyers argue that confirmation of charges was based on false testimony of Witness Number Four who claimed to have witnessed alleged criminal meetings.<\/p>\n
But the prosecutor has insisted there is enough evidence to support the charges against Uhuru.<\/p>\n
Uhuru contends about \u201c84 per cent\u201d of the testimonial evidence the prosecution intends to rely upon in the trial was collected after the confirmation of charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe extent of the prosecution\u2019s post-confirmation investigations in this case is manifestly excessive and has resulted in a fundamental factual shift of the prosecution\u2019s case,\u201d he says in submissions after last month\u2019s status conference.<\/p>\n
Uhuru\u2019s lawyers say the prosecutor\u2019s late investigations and delayed disclosure of evidence led to the postponement of the commencement of trial.<\/p>\n
They note that the prosecutor must apply to the Trial Chamber to have the evidence gathered after confirmation of the charges against Uhuru admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prosecution must not be encouraged or permitted to proceed to confirmation on unsatisfactory evidence in the knowledge that they will have a second chance to fill gaps and omissions at a later stage,\u201d says Uhuru\u2019s defence counsel in their filing.<\/p>\n
In his latest submission of March 28, just two days before the Supreme Court upheld his presidential victory, Uhuru says it was \u201cirresponsible of the prosecution to elect to proceed to confirmation before it had thoroughly investigated its case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, Pre-Trial Chamber II allowed Bensouda to add to the document containing the charges that victims in the case against Uhuru also died of gunshot wounds in Naivasha.<\/p>\n
{{Pre-Trial}}<\/p>\n
In the decision issued by the Pre-Trial Chamber II presiding judge Ekaterina Trendafilova, who confirmed the charges against Uhuru and three others, she said from four witness statements, it was clear guns such as G3 rifles and AK 47 were used in the killings in Naivasha.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom an evidentiary perspective, the prosecutor has fulfilled her statutory duty by presenting evidence which supports her allegation that victims were also killed by gunshot in Naivasha,\u201d Trendafilova said in the ruling.<\/p>\n
Uhuru argues that in opposing the amendment the prosecutor was basing her arguments on evidence gathered after the confirmation of charges, which is against the Statute.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo allow automatically the admission of wholly new evidence that was available with the exercise of reasonable diligence at confirmation, but which was not collected or presented by the prosecution, without any judicial oversight, would be to emasculate the confirmation of charges process and denude confirmation decisions of the required legal certainty,\u201d say Kay and Higgins.<\/p>\n
Bensouda last week opposed a request by Uhuru, his deputy William Ruto and Radio Journalist arap Sang to follow the trial proceedings via video link.<\/p>\n
She stated the Rome Statute required the accused to be present in the courtroom for their trial. The judges are yet to rule on the matter.<\/p>\n
Standard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta has explained to trial judges at the International Criminal Court why he wants them to dismiss the case against him, or send it back to the Pre-Trial Chamber II.}} In submissions filed by his lawyers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins, Uhuru argues the prosecution has built a new case after discarding testimony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-6939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6939"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=6939"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=6939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}