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Kenya: Deputy President William Ruto pleads not guilty to ICC charges
Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto (pictured), pleaded innocent to crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday.
As the parties took their places in the courtroom before the judges arrived, Ruto appeared relaxed, laughing and smiling with his lawyers. Joshua arap Sang, his co-accused, gave a reporter the thumbs-up sign.
Ruto and Sang are charged with co-orchestrating a post-election bloodbath over 5 years ago, working with co-conspirators to murder, deport and persecute supporters of rival political parties in Kenya’s Rift Valley region.
“The crimes of which Mr. Ruto and Mr. Sang are charged were not just random and spontaneous acts of brutality,” said Fatou Bensouda, the ICC’s prosecutor, describing the charges in court.
The trials of Ruto and that of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, which will start in November, have split public opinion, and witness testimonies of the violence in 2007-08 that killed more than a thousand people could stir tension.
The cases are also a major test for prosecutors at the decade-old Hague-based ICC, who have had a low success rate and face accusations of focusing on African countries, while avoiding war crimes in other global hotspots.
Kenyatta, Ruto’s former rival who became a political ally, faces similar charges of crimes against humanity.
