Nairobi: The African Union (AU) has faulted the use of recanted evidence in the case against Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang who are facing criminal charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Union’s member States Justice Ministers and Attorneys General took issue with the court’s decision to allow Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to use recanted evidence in the Kenyan cases, cautioning that it runs contrary to the agreement reached during talks on Rule 68 at the 12th Assembly of States Parties (ASP) in 2013.
They swore to support Kenya in her push to review the amended Rule 68 at the 14th ASP session commencing next week Wednesday at The Hague, Netherlands.
The leaders argued that Prosecution’s use of recanted testimony under the amended Rule of the Rome Statute also goes contrary to the principle of non-retroactivity in criminal law justice and constitutes a serious affront to the universally accepted right to fair trial.
The non-retroactivity principle dictates that a rule passed by the ASP cannot be used against suspects in ongoing cases at The Hague based court.
They confirmed in a statement released to the media at the ongoing Ministerial meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee of Justice and Legal Affairs held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, their resolve to back Kenyan’s push to amend the law.
“We have resolved to unequivocally reject the use of recanted evidence by the ICC Prosecutor under the amended Rule 68 of the Rome Statute in the Kenyan case, Prosecutor vs William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang,” reads part of the statement.
It continued, “We have therefore resolved to support Kenya’s request during the 14th Assembly of States Parties session to review the amended Rule 68.”
The meeting also acknowledged the MPs petition to the United Nations Security Council and to the ASP seeking the appointment of an independent mechanism to audit the Prosecutor’s witnesses.
“We support the Kenya legislators call for an audit of the prosecution witnesses, how they were identified and recruited, including the improprieties committed by use of intermediaries in witness preparation,” committed the Justice minsters and AGs from the member States.
Even in addressing themselves to the Kenyan’s cases, the leaders reaffirmed the unwavering commitment of the AU and its Member States to combat impunity, and promote democracy, the rule of law and good governance throughout the entire continent in conformity with the Constitutive Act of the African Union.
They underscored the importance of role played by Member States in the negotiations of the Rome Statute of the ICC and noted that thirty four (34) African Union Member States are States Parties to the Rome Statute.
They also expressed gratitude to the African Union Commission for the robust submissions it made in respect to the Appeal on the use of Rule 68 now pending before the Appeals Chamber of the ICC.
Already about 100 legislators’ have applied visas to attend the ASP session, where they plan to lobby other members to back the country’s push to reject application of Rule 68 in the Ruto-Sang case.
