The five are Maximilien Turinabo, Anselme Nzabonimpa, Jean de Dieu Ndagijimana, Marie Rose Fatuma and Dick Prudence Munyeshuli.
They were arrested last week following the arrest warrants issued by the Judge of the International Residual Mechanism of the Criminal Tribunal (IRMCT) on September 3.
They were transferred yesterday to the UN detention facilities in Arusha, Tanzania.
“Today, on 10th September 2018, the National Public Prosecuiton Authority of Rwanda has handed over the above five Rwandan citizens to the judicial authorities of IRMCT,” reads part of the prosecution’s statement.
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The IRMCT statement released last Wednesday allege that the aim of the suspects’ efforts was to secure the reversal of Augustin Ngirabatware’s conviction by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Ngirabatware was convicted by the ICTR’s Appeals Chamber for direct and public incitement to commit genocide, instigating genocide and aiding and abetting genocide and gave him a sentence of 30 years of imprisonment.
The indictment in the Turinabo et al. case alleges that the five accused are responsible for contempt of court, incitement to commit contempt and knowing violation of court orders, and interfering with the administration of justice at the Mechanism and ICTR.
The Office of the Prosecutor alleges that Maximilien Turinabo, Anselme Nzabonimpa, Jean de Dieu Ndagijimana and Marie Rose Fatuma, directly and through others, offered bribes and exerted pressure to influence the evidence of protected witnesses in the Ngirabatware case.
It also alleges that Dick Prudence Munyeshuli and Maximilien Turinabo disclosed protected information regarding protected witnesses in knowing violation of protective measures ordered by the ICTR and Mechanism.
The Mechanism Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in a statement that his office is determined to fight all efforts to interfere with witnesses and the proper administration of justice, in accordance with the office’s mandate from the United Nations Security Council.
IRMCT instruments state that anyone who is convicted with interfering with its justice shall face seven years of imprisonment maximum or a fine of €50,000.
ICTR sentenced Ngirabatware to 35 years in jail in 2012 but the sentence was reduced to 30 years in 2014 in the appeal trial by IRMCT.
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In June 2017, IRMCT accepted Ngirabatware’s request for the appeal review which was set for February 2018.
However, his counsel Peter Robinson withdrew earlier, putting off the review hearing until September 24.
Ngirabatware has got Diana Ellis and Sam Blom-Cooper as counsel and co-counsel to represent him in the review proceedings before the Mechanism.
The 61-year old was arrested in Germany in September 2007 and transferred to ICTR in October 2008.
He was appointed the Minister of Planning in the genocidal regime in July 1990, a position he retained as part of the Interim Rwandan Government in April 1994.
Ngirabatware was also a member of the Préfecture Committee of then ruling National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) political party in Gisenyi Préfecture, the National Committee of the MRND, and the technical committee of Nyamyumba Commune.
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