Six witnesses can't be believed, William Ruto defence says

William Ruto’s lawyers have argued that six core witnesses at the heart of the prosecution’s claims against him are not credible.

Mr Ruto’s lawyers have pressed International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (pictured) to prove that the witnesses she used to build the case against Ruto were not the ones who had allegedly been procured to testify before the justice Phillip Waki-led commission.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who has proposed opening a probe into alleged war crimes committed during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, speaks during a press conference in Tbilisi on October 16, 2015. William Ruto’s lawyers have argued that six core witnesses at the heart of the prosecution’s claims against him are not credible. (AFP PHOTO / VANO SHLAMOV)

The credibility of the six core witnesses called by Ms Bensouda has been challenged, with the defence team arguing they were the same people who testified before the Justice Waki commission and had been coached to give false evidence to pin Ruto down.

The DP’s lawyer argued that while the case was confirmed based on the statements of the “Confirmation Six” only three of these confirmation witnesses appeared before the trial chamber. They included P-0658, who failed to testify in line with his original statement, stating, in respect of one meeting relied upon at confirmation, that “it (was) not a story that (he)...want(ed) to stand by”.

The other was P-0743, who was declared “a thoroughly unreliable and incredible witness” by the OTP. The fourth witness, P-0025, was declared by OTP as “not reliable”.

For the fifth witness, P-0015, OTP decided not to call him and finally, P-0024, withdrew co-operation from the OTP for unknown reasons but was not made the subject of a summons request, Ruto’s lawyers submitted.

“The evidence relied upon by the PTC (pre trial chamber) to confirm this case has, on any analysis, evaporated,” Ruto’s lawyer Karim Khan submitted in the ‘no case to answer’ motion filed at the ICC.

Mr Khan argues that the court must set Ruto free, alleging that the prosecution based its case on hearsay and speculation. The defence added witnesses could not be trusted following allegations by Gatundu MP Moses Kuria that he coached some of the witnesses who appeared before the Waki commission.

Khan observed the case had no grounds due to failure to verify the witnesses’ original accounts of what happened in 2007 and early 2008.