ICC witness: I gave false testimony against William Ruto

What you need to know:

  • The witness told the ICC that the promises were made by two people he met in Eldoret for three hours in October 2012.
  • The names of the two individuals were revealed in a private session after the presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osuji intervened.

A third prosecution witness on Tuesday told ICC judges that he was coached to give a false statement against deputy president William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang prior to their trials in exchange for money and relocation to a foreign country.

The witness told the ICC that the promises were made by two people he met in Eldoret for three hours in October 2012, if he agreed to include some of the fabricated events in the statement to be given Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

The witness made the claims during the examination-in-chief by prosecution lawyer Anton Steynberg.

Witness P516 said he met the two — only named Persons 1 and 3 by court to protect their identities — in a hotel where he was guided on what to write in his testimony.

He said Person 1 introduced him to 3 who talked him into writing the statement.

NAMES REVEALED

The names of the two individuals were revealed in a private session after the presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osuji intervened.

The witness did not disclose the amount of money promised nor the country he was to move to.

The lawyer asked the witness to reveal what they talked about during the meeting.

The witness asked to talk to his lawyer, Mr Wandubi Karate, before he could reveal what they discussed.

Testifying from a secret location in Nairobi through a video link, he persisted he was guided on what to add to the statement, and that some events were fabrications.

FOREIGN COUNTRY

“First, we talked about many things, first about the case and then we discussed how I was going to give testimony against Mr Ruto so that I receive some money and that we had to change names. I also received a promise to be relocated to a foreign country,” the witness said.

The witness said he included activities that did not take place in Eldoret during the period in order to make his story believable.

“I had to include some events that never took place to give it more credibility. It was necessary to come up with a written statement that would be credible so that I could get the promises I had been promised,” he revealed on Tuesday.

Judge Eboe-Osuji asked the witness to clarify what he was told to write about.

Eboe-Osuji: Was it information about what happened or was it information that was made up in the sense that those things did not happen?

Witness: These were fabricated information to make my statement look credible.

Eboe-Osuji: Who came up with the fabricated story? Whose idea was it?

Witness: It was person number 3 and then number 1 contributed to a lesser extent.