ICC drops cases against DP Ruto and journalist Sang

The Hague. Deputy President William Ruto and former radio presenter Joshua arap Sang have been set free by the International Criminal Court.

Judges decided by a majority that DP Ruto and Mr Sang case be terminated, adding that the decision does not preclude future prosecution at the ICC or in a national jurisdiction.

“The charges are hereby vacated and the accused are discharged from the process without prejudice to their presumption of innocence or the prosecutor’s right re-prosecute the case at a later time,” Presiding Judge Eboe-Osuji said.

The two have been freed from charges of crimes against humanity arising from the 2007/2008 post-election violence that left some 1,113 people dead and more than 500,000 internally displaced.

Mr Ruto and Mr Sang’s legal teams filed the no-case-to-answer application last September, saying that ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had not built a case to have then put on their defence.

The application was heard in January, but the judges blocked the defence teams from presenting witnesses to support their arguments.

However, lawyer Karim Khan, for Mr Ruto, and Mr Katwa Kigen, for Mr Sang, argued that the case had collapsed after the prosecution failed to present adequate evidence. Ruto 49, and Sang, 40, have both denied three charges of crimes against humanity -- namely murder, forcible deportation and persecution -- arising out of Kenya’s disputed elections in late December 2007 and their violent aftermath in early 2008.

Prosecutors say more than 1,300 people died and some 600,000 others were left homeless in Kenya’s worst wave of violence since independence from Britain in 1963.

The case was being keenly watched in Kenya, which has led a high-profile campaign against the ICC among African nations, accusing the tribunal of bias against the continent.

Several African nations have threatened to walk out of the court, set up in 2002 to try to the world’s worst crimes.

The Kenyan government has long argued the charges should be dismissed following a similar case against Ruto’s erstwhile bitter rival and now Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

In a major setback for the ICC, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda abandoned the case against Kenyatta in late 2014.(NMG)