Poll violence witness flown out for safety

By NATION correspondent
Posted Wednesday, August 18 2010 at 21:22

A senior officer with a human rights organisation has been flown out of the country ahead of the arrest of the masterminds of the 2007 post-election violence.

Centre Against Torture coordinator David Koros is reported to have flown out last week. His destination is unknown although the International Criminal Court took two weeks to clear him.

“It’s a sensitive matter but just know that he is out of the country,” one of his employees told the Nation.

Masterminds of chaos

Those being flown into safe houses abroad are potential witnesses with vital information on how politicians and businesspeople masterminded and financed the violence.

“We are still in the country with our families in readiness to leave. Other guys are somewhere within East Africa on transit. But we normally communicate with them,” said a source who cannot be named for security reasons.

The court has relocated five of the 21 witnesses who testified in camera before the Commission of Inquiry into Post-election Violence to safe houses around East Africa. About 1,333 people died in the chaos.