The International Criminal Court (ICC) headquarters at The Hague [PHOTO/haguejusticeportal.net]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecution has said it regrets the conditions that led to the dropping of Kenyan cases which collapsed before full trial.
ICC said it is however longing for a future Kenyan regime which will fully cooperate to revive the cases.
In a conversation on the sidelines of the international justice symposium in Arusha Tanzania earlier this week, the court's Senior Trial Lawyer Anton Steynberg admitted that lapses in prosecutorial strategy had contributed to collapse of the cases.
Steynberg was however categorical that these cases were weakened mostly by the “direct attack” on prosecution witnesses Kenya's failure to cooperate with the prosecution.
“Our cases were weakened to such a situation as we didn’t think, in our right conscience, that we could proceed with them as it were. It is said the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. Who knows, the next regime may be much more cooperative, or the next after the next,” he said. “I am not about to retire...I can wait,” he said.
“The fact that they were able to turn it around into a positive and win top elective posts was beyond us. Together with other efforts, their unity and the residual fears of prosecution contributed to a peaceful general election in Kenya in 2013,” Steynberg told reporters.
“We have learned our lessons on this. Even for you in the media, you admit, you were out-resourced, outsmarted and out-maneuvered by publicity companies working at the behest of the accused persons,” Steynberg said. “We are now able to explain ourselves much better.”