Court allows grilling of ‘hostile’ witness
What you need to know:
- The prosecution made the request for the witness to be declared hostile last week after he recanted his earlier statement.
- Prosecution lawyer Anton Steynberg described the witness as “evasive and of poor demeanour”.
ICC judges on Monday declared a prosecution witness hostile and allowed the prosecutor to cross-examine him.
The three judges unanimously agreed that witness 604 had diverged from his earlier statement and the prosecution lawyer, Anton Steynberg, ought to cross-examine him.
“The Chamber has noted the extent of the divergence of the witness from the statement he gave earlier. It is right to allow the prosecution to explore further the areas of divergence by cross-examination. The request is granted,” said Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji when he delivered the court’s ruling on the request by Mr Steynberg.
The prosecution made the request for the witness to be declared hostile last week after he recanted his earlier statement saying he had been asked to implicate Deputy President William Ruto and co-accused Joshua Sang.
The cross-examination continues on Tuesday.
MADE UP STORIES
Earlier, the witness admitted that he made up stories on meetings and rallies in which Mr Ruto purportedly addressed and incited Kalenjins against Kikuyus ahead of the 2007 elections.
The witness said he “formulated” and “fabricated” stories about a rally held in Turbo in Rift Valley in December 2007 and meetings in Mr Ruto’s home with the intention of making him appear “anti-Kikuyus” and pro-violence.
The witness, who is testifying from Nairobi through a video link, said his hatred for the Deputy President had led him to give false information about him.
Asked whether there were any meetings in Mr Ruto’s house in Sugow to organise post-election violence, the witness said there was none.
The witness also said he lied to falsely incriminate Mr Sang by claiming in his statement that the former radio broadcaster incited Kalenjins to attack Kikuyus.
He said he did not tune in to Kass FM — where Mr Sang worked — but listened to Citizen Radio during the election period.
At one point, Mr Steynberg called the witness “careless”, attracting the attention of court president Eboe-Osuji, who asked him not to use the word in court again.
Mr Steynberg described the witness as “evasive and of poor demeanour”.
