The International Criminal Court has formally halted proceedings against Kenya’s president, three months after prosecutors dropped charges implicating him in fomenting postelection violence in his country.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was charged in 2011 with murder, rape, persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in the violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in 2007 and 2008. He always maintained his innocence.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda dropped the charges in December, saying that Kenyan authorities had impeded her investigation. At the time, she called it “a dark day for international criminal justice.”
Today’s action by judges was a formality once Bensouda had withdrawn charges against Kenyatta. Bensouda has said she reserves the right to file fresh charges if she gets enough evidence.
