DP William Ruto clashes with Bensouda over killed witness Meshack Yebei

Fatou Bensouda

THE HAGUE: The faceoff between Deputy President William Ruto and The Hague Prosecutor over an alleged witness killed in Kenya continued with the DP’s defence team claiming Ms Fatou Bensouda was aware of death threats against the deceased whom they said was their client’s “critical witness”.

Further, Ruto made a startling claim that the late Meshack Yebei, whom Bensouda had discredited claiming he could not be on the final witness list because he was found to have tried to corrupt witnesses, had been threatened by a prosecution witness.

Ruto’s lawyer Karim Khan wrote that the man found dead two weeks ago, after he disappeared just after stepping out to buy his sick child water, had been threatened with abduction by a prosecution witness.

The alleged threats, he argued, were linked to a decision by Yebei, whose badly mutilated body was discovered on December 31, to testify in Ruto's favour and to reveal how prosecution witnesses had fabricated evidence against him, Khan has claimed.

Khan added following the revelation of the alleged threats, he personally referred Yebei to the International Criminal Court Victims and Witnesses Protection Unit.

Yebei's abduction and subsequent murder last month has become a source of controversies and exchanges between Ruto's defence team and the Office of the Prosecution (OTP). It has also drawn in a section of Kenyan politicians and the Office of the Attorney General.

It also emerged that even after being enlisted as a witness for the defence, Yebei made contacts with the OTP investigators who relocated him to another country and interviewed him on his involvement with other witnesses.

In a statement Tuesday, Khan took issue with the OTP for claiming that Yebei was rejected as a prosecution witness because he was involved in a scheme to corrupt prosecution witnesses in the case.

"This can only be described as a gratuitous character assassination of an individual not available to defend himself and without regard to the dignity of the family of the deceased," the lawyer said. "Despite these claims, it is highly significant that the Prosecution never sought an arrest warrant against Mr Yebei," Khan added.

Bensouda's office denied any involvement in the death, describing the allegations as outrageous and utterly false. "The Office of the Prosecutor wishes to categorically state that any suggestion that it was involved in Yebei's alleged abduction and murder is both outrageous and utterly false. Nothing could be further from the truth," said the OTP in its statement last week.

The OTP said their witnesses in the Ruto case have been under threats.

"The Office of the Prosecutor has identified a network of individuals who have been working together to sabotage the Prosecution's case against  Ruto and Sang, by using bribes and/or threats to either dissuade witnesses from testifying in this case or influence Prosecution witnesses to recant their testimony," wrote OTP.

RUTO'S CONFIRMATION

Yebei went missing in Turbo, Uasin Gishu County on December 28 last year and his body was found on December 31 dumped in Yala River bridge on Eldoret-Kisumu Road, near Kapsabet town. His family says he had reported to the police that his life was in danger over a year before his mutilated body was recovered. Despite his body being recovered three days earlier, his family was only notified on January 3.

Tuesday, Khan said: "The Defence has recently learned that the Prosecution was fully on notice, months before the alleged abduction and murder of Mr Yebei, that he had been threatened with abduction by one of the Prosecution's own witnesses."

"I have requested information from the Prosecution as to what steps it took to alert the Victims Witness Unit (VWU) of the information it received from one prosecution witness that Yebei had been threatened with abduction by another prosecution witness. I am still awaiting a response from the prosecution to this inquiry," Khan went on.

Ruto confirmed last week that Yebei was one of his witnesses. The confirmation was made in the confidential letter by Khan to the Criminal Investigations Department's director Mr Ndegwa Muhoro.

Tuesday, Khan said Yebei first contacted the defence team in July 2013. "He told us about a cabal of prosecution witnesses who had deliberately concocted false accounts against Mr William Ruto for financial and other benefits. We have independently investigated and verified this information," Ruto's lawyer said.

Khan said however that the Prosecution contacted and interviewed Yebei without the knowledge of the Defence on the allegations that he was involved in witness interference activities. "Yebei, also without the knowledge of the Defence, fully cooperated with the Prosecution, voluntarily traveled to a third country and made himself available for questioning there by Prosecution investigators," he wrote.

Khan claimed that on one of the dates Yebei is said to have been in Nairobi interfering with witnesses, he had been hospitalised in Eldoret.

"The Defence obtained full hospital records demonstrating that Mr Yebei had, in fact, been hospitalised in Eldoret and had been there the day before, as well as the day after the alleged meeting in Nairobi. This information and evidence was disclosed to the Prosecution by the Defence well before Mr Yebei's disappearance," he siad.

Last week, a section of Jubilee MPs sought to implicate a civil society activist vocal in his support of the ICC and the court's prosecution in the execution. "The prime suspect is one Ken Wafula while prime suspect number two is the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) led by one Fatou Bensouda and the ICC," National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale claimed at a press conference to which he was accompanied by 20 MPs. Wafula denied the allegation as did the OTP.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko has set up a team of six investigators to probe the murder.

Attorney General Githu Muigai said neither Ruto's defence nor the ICC prosecution had notified the Government that Yebei was a witness in the case.

On Tuesday, Khan said he had requested for information from the Prosecution as to what steps it took to alert the VWU on the abduction threats. "I am still awaiting a response from the Prosecution to this inquiry," the lawyer added. He said Yebei had requested that he be allowed to testify in a public session in order to reveal the truth.