Kenyan president's Hague trial halted in blow to war crimes court

The International Criminal Court case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta collapsed on Friday as prosecutors admitted they lacked evidence, casting doubt on whether the decade-old court can hold the powerful to account.
In a court filing, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Kenya had not handed over the bank and telephone records that the decade-old court was demanding, leaving them without a case ahead of the scheduled October 7 start date.
The case against Kenyatta, accused of stoking lethal inter-ethnic violence after Kenya's 2007 presidential elections in which 1,200 died, had been postponed several times as prosecutors tried to gather evidence against him.
The collapse of the case is a severe blow for the Hague-baesd court, the first permanent war crimes tribunal, which was set up with the aim of ensuring that people accused of the most serious international crimes face justice.
"The accused person in this case is the head of a government that has so far failed fully to comply with its obligations to the Court," ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a filing, asking judges to adjourn the case indefinitely.
Judges could respond to the filing by throwing out the case, bringing the case against Kenyatta to an end.
But a prosecution lawyer told Reuters they hoped judges would agree to a highly unusual permanent adjournment, which would indicate the case had failed because Kenya authorities had obstructed the investigation.



http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/05/us-icc-kenya-adjournment-idUSKBN0H01LI20140905