A new twist on the ICC cases regarding Kenyan Post-Election Violence (PEV) suspects has emerged days after former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan revisited the issue.
The revelations published by the New York Times on a Wednesday online publication states that retired ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo attempted to lure former Police Boss Maj-Gen Hussein Ali to testify against incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Civil Service head Francis Muthaura.
However, Ali turned down the offer despite being promised that his cooperation will lead to the dropping of all his charges.
The desperate move was apparently pulled by the prosecution team after they were faced with dwindling pool of evidence, the article noted.
Ali's lawyer, Evans Monari confirmed that indeed the ICC prosecution team made several attempts to lure his client into submitting to their request.
“We told him off, first, because we didn’t think that they had sustainable charges against Ali,” said Monari.
“Secondly, we did not have any evidence that would have helped him convict any of the other suspects. So, after analysing the scenario, we decided we’d rather take our chances and we pulled through,” he added.
Ali's charges were however dropped on January 23, 2012.
The article further reveals that after the fail attempt to persuade Maj-General Hussein Ali, the ICC turned to Mungiki leader Maina Njenga.
“Njenga was ‘very forthright,’ (Lawyer Paul) Muite told me, and he later agreed to testify in The Hague,” says the article.
The ICC prosecutor, however, didn't get a chance to use the evidence that Maina Njenga provided since they could not protect him.
Monari however, took the time to fault Mr Ocampo for breaching protective measures that the courts had put in place with regards to the witnesses.
The ICC has since dropped all charges gainst the six Kenyan suspected who were termed as the person who bore the great responsibility for the 2007/2008 post-election violence.