Elena Casas
The International Criminal Court in the Hague has ruled that out-of-court evidence is not admissible in the case against Kenyan vice president William Ruto.
The decision is a victory for Ruto's defence team, who had pushed for the case to be dismissed.
The case against Ruto rests heavily on out of court statements from witnesses who then recanted or refused to appear in court. It is linking Ruto to the post electoral violence which took place during 2007-08, in which more than 1000 people died.
The court has now ruled those out of court statements are not acceptable evidence - because the original court applied a rule allowed it without considering if it unfairly disadvantaged the defendants' case.
The prosecution blames political intimidation and bribery for a third of their original witnesses in the case dropping out.
The appeals chamber finds that the trial chamber applied article 68 retroactively and to the detriment of the accused. The trial chamber committed a legal error.
The judgment follows a determined push from the Kenyan government to have this evidence ruled out.
Human Rights Watch Elizabeth Evensong says, "Kenya wanted the body of ICC member countries, the assembly, to say hey, we never intended for this rule to be used in this case, and they did so at a time when this case was teed up before the judges, and so this was a completely outrageous effort by the Kenyan government to try to put political pressure on the judges to rule in a certain way."
The Kenyan government is now likely to claim victory - but the judgment is a setback for victims of Kenya's post electoral violence.
International Federation for Human Rights Carrie Comer says, "Throughout this case and other cases related to Kenya, we have seen massive and systematic tampering with witnesses, many witnesses recanting their testimony, allegations of bribery and threats, and each time this happens it really is causing a double assault on victims of the violence in Kenya, not only were they first violated during the violence but also as witnesses recant their testimony due to outside pressure."
The judge made it clear this decision doesn't excuse witness intimidation in any way.
Tampering with a witness is in itself a crime under international law and the ICC wants two people who are now in custody in Kenya to be extradited to face trial for it.