The trial of Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, the most important in the 12-year history of the International Criminal Court (ICC), will not open as scheduled on October 7th, because of insufficient evidence, and has effectively collapsed.
In a dramatic response late on Friday night to an ultimatum from judges asking her to confirm that she would be ready to open the case next month, the court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said she would "not be in a position to proceed to trial".
Mr Kenyatta’s lawyers have consistently called for the charges against him to be dropped, and in the four-page filing Ms Bensouda concedes that “in ordinary circumstances the insufficiency of evidence would cause the prosecution to withdraw the charges”.
She said that because the lack of evidence results from obstructionism by the Kenyan government and its failure to hand over Mr Kenyatta’s phone and financial records a more appropriate decision could be to adjourn the case until the government co-operates. “The accused person in this case is the head of a government that has so far failed fully to comply with its obligations to the court,” she told the judges, asking them to take the unprecedented step of adjourning the case indefinitely.
Mr Kenyatta (52) pleads not guilty to five counts of crimes against humanity for allegedly masterminding the 2008 post- election violence which left more than 1,200 people dead and 250,000 displaced – and was due to become the first sitting president to face charges in the ICC dock.
The case has been at the centre of an angry political row between the ICC and the African Union, which has urged Mr Kenyatta to boycott his trial, saying he should have immunity while serving as president – and alleging that the court has been "hunting" black African leaders, a claim it denies.
Responding to the prosecutor’s filing, Esther Auma, a farm worker in Naivasha, north of Nairobi, where some of the worst violence occurred, said: “All our hope lay with the ICC. It seems that has now been crushed.”
