Bensouda dismisses Kenya UN appeal to end Uhuru, Ruto cases

From left: ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, Deputy President William Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta. Ms Bensouda has dismissed a Kenya appeal to the United Nations Security Council to end cases facing Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto May 10, 2013. FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP, By KEVIN KELLEY, NATION Correspondent in New York, Friday, May 10  201

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that Kenya had made “unfounded and incorrect” claims in urging it to end the cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

Fatou Bensouda described Kenya’s appeal to the UN Security Council last week as “a backdoor attempt to politicise the judicial processes” of the ICC.

Noting that she has not received a copy of the May 2 letter sent to the council by Kenyan UN Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Ms Bensouda said she was speaking in response to earlier comments made to the council by Rwanda’s ambassador.

The Rwandan envoy, Eugene-Richard Gasana, had said during Wednesday’s council meeting that Kenya’s letter makes “a compelling case against the methods of work of the office of the prosecutor on the Kenyan cases".

Ambassador Gasana accused the ICC of being “selective in its methods of investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of serious international crimes as it has failed to prosecute similar crimes committed in other parts of the world with impunity".

Ms Bensouda said in her response that the ICC “has always and will always continue to respect the sovereign equality of all states.”

She added that “the ICC will not shy away from investigating individuals for any alleged crimes irrespective of their status".

Ms Bensouda said she reserved the right to respond in detail to Kenya’s letter to the council, which has not been officially released.

The comments by the Rwanda ambassador and Ms Bensouda’s response were made during the course of a Security Council session focused on prosecution of crimes committed in Libya during the pro-democracy uprising in 2011.