Kenya: Bensouda Says Uhuru Team Tried to Bribe Her Witnesses

ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has claimed she has telephone recordings of associates of President Uhuru Kenyatta inducing two key witnesses to withdraw their evidence.

Bensouda filed a 41 page document on Tuesday opposing Uhuru's application to stay the proceedings against him.

She argued that Uhuru's "application for a permanent stay of proceedings comes nowhere near the high threshold the Appeals Chamber has established for such relief. On the contrary, the matters raised in the Application show why a trial is necessary."

"The arguments regarding the credibility of the Prosecution's Mungiki witnesses merely raise possible avenues of cross-examination and lines of defence. The Defence's arguments on witness credibility - which omit facts that undermine the Defence's position and which the Prosecution disputes - are reasons to have a trial, not reasons to avoid a trial," she said.

Bensouda named people who offered witnesses P-0011 and P-0012 money to drop their testimony but their names are redacted. Bensouda said she recorded the telephone conversations of the bribery attempts with permission of the witnesses.

Uhuru has already claimed that the same two witnesses witness 11 and 12 wanted to extort money from him before crossing to the prosecution. During the confirmation of charges hearings in September 2011, he claimed they were "professional criminal extortionists".

In an application to the court for a stay in October 2013, Uhuru accused the same two witnesses of interfering with defense investigations. "To determine the scope of the bribery scheme, the Prosecution conducted a series of monitored telephone calls between P-0012 and [REDACTED], and between the witness and his family members," Bensouda stated..

"The conversations revealed that [REDACTED], holding himself out as acting on behalf of the Accused, offered P-0012 money and other benefits in exchange for the witness's agreement to withdraw his evidence," she said.

Bensouda said the redacted person indicated that "Mr Kenyatta was informed of the scheme and wanted to avoid direct involvement because he was concerned about getting caught tampering with evidence."