THE HAGUE: Lawyers for Kenya’s president on Wednesday asked judges at the International Criminal Court to drop the crimes-against-humanity case against him — and acquit him — saying the prosecution has collapsed and cannot be resurrected.

Prosecutors have acknowledged that they do not currently have enough evidence to prosecute Uhuru Kenyatta for his alleged role in instigating and funding violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and forced 600,000 people from their homes in the aftermath of Kenya’s 2007 presidential elections.

But they blame the government Kenyatta leads for obstructing their investigation by failing to turn over potential evidence including Kenyatta’s phone records, tax returns and bank account details.

“This case has failed and it has failed in a way that means there is no prospect of it going further,” Kenyatta’s defense lawyer Steven Kay told a three-judge panel. “If the prosecutor does not intervene, you act to terminate.” The status conference in Kenyatta’s case has touched on the fundamental issue of how the world’s first permanent international criminal court can successfully prosecute government leaders when it often has to rely on the cooperation of the same governments in gathering evidence.

Kenya’s Attorney General told the court in a hearing on Tuesday that prosecution requests for evidence are not detailed enough for him to act on.

Prosecution trial lawyer Benjamin Gumpert cautioned judges that scrapping the case now would send a worrying message to other governments who could face prosecution in the future.

Gumpert said such a decision would be interpreted as “the court saying that if a country sticks out for long enough obstructing proper inquiries being made by the prosecution ... then the case ... will go away.” That interpretation “would be disastrous,” he added.

The prosecution has asked the judges to adjourn the case indefinitely until Kenya fully cooperates in its investigation. The panel is not expected to rule on either request Wednesday.