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| Deputy President William Ruto (left) and former radio presenter Joshua arap Sang. |
By Isaiah Lucheli
Nairobi, Kenya: Two key witnesses in the International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Deputy President William Ruto and former radio presenter Joshua arap Sang have withdrawn, just a week before their trial commences at The Hague.
The two witnesses have, through sworn affidavits, recanted their testimonies and written statements informing the ICC prosecutor that they will not participate in the impending hearing.
The witnesses, through lawyer Christopher Mitei wrote to the prosecutor and also filed the affidavits and other documents to the ICC Registry - Office of the counsel for defense and office of the counsel victims confirming the withdrawals.
“Enclosed here with please find self-explanatory letters and affidavits of our clients herein confirming their withdrawal from the ICC process,” read the August 30 letter written by the lawyer.
Mitei in an interview with The Standard explained that he had been approached by the two witnesses with the intention to withdraw from the cases.
One of the witnesses was at the time of post-election violence working for a Non-Governmental Organization Anti-Torture Campaign Network as a programme office, which was operating in the North Rift Region and they dealt with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The other witness was an employee of Kass FM station but was sacked in April 2008 and believed that Sang was behind his dismissal. He had agreed to be a witness when he was approached by an ICC investigator only known as Paul in 2012.
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