Saturday, November 6, 2010

Ruto did not meet ICC prosecutor

The Hague, Saturday

Kenya's suspended Higher Education Minister has met only International Criminal Court investigators and not its chief prosecutor during a trip to The Hague to discuss a probe into the country’s post-election riots.

William Ruto left for The Hague on Wednesday, saying he planned to meet ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his staff to give his version of the events around the post-election killings in a bid to clear his name in the investigation.

But the office of the prosecutor at the ICC said that Moreno-Ocampo was in London on Thursday and Friday. That makes it impossible for him to have met with Ruto, contradicting earlier reports.

Ruto was not immediately available for comment.

The ICC, based in The Hague, is investigating the violence in Kenya when about 1,300 people were killed following the 2007 elections. The ICC has not yet formally identified any key suspects.

The State-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has said senior ministers were architects of the violence, including Ruto and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.

Both Ruto and Kenyatta deny any role in instigating the violence.

Ruto told Reuters that his meetings at the ICC on Friday had been “very productive, very positive, very informative.” The office of the prosecutor has not commented on the meetings.

“This is the right thing to do, to put to rest the issues of the post-election violence in our country and we need to get the country to move on,” said Ruto of his trip to The Hague.

Legal observers say the lack of a personal meeting between Moreno-Ocampo should not be considered of great significance, however, and is more likely standard procedure.

The ICC is the first permanent world tribunal set up to prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide and other gross human right violations.

— Reuters

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