{"id":52599,"date":"2014-10-01T06:15:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T06:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=52599"},"modified":"2014-10-01T06:15:56","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T06:15:56","slug":"kenya-leader-icc-delay-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=52599","title":{"rendered":"Kenya leader ICC delay rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\">The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected a request by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to avoid appearing at a hearing on 8 October.<\/p>\n<p>He denies organising ethnic massacres after the 2007 elections in which 1,200 people were killed,<\/p>\n<p>Judges rejected Mr Kenyatta&#8217;s request to postpone the hearing or appear via video link, and insisted he must appear in person at the Hague.<\/p>\n<p>The trial has already been delayed several times.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kenyatta&#8217;s lawyers made the request that he be excused from appearing before the court on the grounds that he had other commitments in Uganda at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>They suggested that the hearing be postponed or that arrangements be made for Mr Kenyatta to appear via video link.<\/p>\n<p>However, the ICC rejected the request, saying that the matters to be discussed were at a critical stage and directly involve the interest of the accused and victims.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The chamber, by majority, finds that the requirements of justice in this case necessitate the physical presence of the accused in court,&#8221; the ICC said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Violent dispute<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Earlier in September, the ICC decided to postpone the start of Mr Kenyatta&#8217;s trial after prosecutors said the Kenyan government had failed to hand over crucial documents.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing on 8 October will instead aim to set a date for a trial.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kenyatta&#8217;s lawyers have repeatedly said the whole case should be dropped because of a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A Kenyan woman cries before a mass funeral for victims of clashes on January 23, 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/77405000\/jpg\/_77405213_5512b08b-8706-4ce6-8421-f2fa9a435583.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div>Kenya has not prosecuted anyone for the violence which wracked the country in 2007-8<\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Opposition party supporters chant their grievances near to a burning barricade, in Kisumu, western Kenya, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008,\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/77405000\/jpg\/_77405215_0444c114-a039-4e4d-92f8-f1846cad78b2.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div>The political dispute soon descended into ethnic killings<\/div>\n<p>Mr Kenyatta was elected in 2013, despite facing the charges. Analysts said he turned the prosecution to his advantage, portraying it as foreign intervention in Kenya&#8217;s domestic affairs.<\/p>\n<p>In 2007, Mr Kenyatta was a close ally of President Mwai Kibaki, who was declared the winner in that year&#8217;s election despite claims of fraud from his rival Raila Odinga.<\/p>\n<p>The disputes soon turned violent, with targeted killings along ethnic lines, pitting members of the Kikuyu ethnic group of Mr Kenyatta and Mr Kibaki against other communities.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kenyatta is accused of organising an ethnic Kikuyu gang, the Mungiki sect, to attack rival groups.<\/p>\n<p>His Vice-President, William Ruto, faces similar charges, although he was on Mr Odinga&#8217;s side during the violence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected a request by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to avoid appearing at a hearing on 8 October. He denies organising ethnic massacres after the 2007 elections in which 1,200 people were killed, Judges rejected Mr Kenyatta&#8217;s request to postpone the hearing or appear via video link, and insisted he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":52600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-52599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}