Category: Justice

{{The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunal (MICT) has confirmed on this 22nd October that Rwandan Justice has the necessary guarantees to ensure a fair trial in International Crime cases to handle the trial of Jean Uwinkindi.{}}}

Uwinkindi Jean, charged with genocide against Tutsi and crimes against humanity has been raising complaints that there is no fair trial in Rwandan judiciary which made him send a letter to MICT requesting the transfer of his trial in other countries.

The statemnent of MICT ruled on Thursday that Rwanda has the ability to handle the trial of Jean Uwinkindi.

The Trial Chamber cleared that Rwandan Justice systems has necessary guarantees to ensure transparency in the management of International Crime cases.

The statement proves that MICT considered effectiveness of Rwandan judiciary process to dismiss Uwinkindi’s appeal.

With this regard, Rwanda had already correctly concluded that it is necessary for Uwinkindi to have legal representation at all times.

The Rwanda Bar Association listing over 60 qualified lawyers to represent indigent persons and chance to appeal any decision Uwinkindi is not happy with are also considered as great achievements to ensure fair trial.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by Genocide suspect Uwinkindi in which he sought to retain his legal team refusing new lawyers assigned to him by Rwanda Bar Association.

Through the process of his trial, Uwinkindi has been assigned new defenders after the Supreme Court realized that his old team was delaying the trial.

The Supreme Court rejected Uwinkindi’s request saying that he had no evidence to prove incompetence of lawyers assigned to him.

The Uwinkindi trial has been marked by complaints regarding the composition of his counsel members and their payment which have delayed trial and culminated in the recent judgment.

Uwinkindi accused the government of failing to pay his lawyers as required by international agreement but the justice Ministry refuted saying there was a plan for the trial.

According to the statement of MINIJUST, the government of Rwanda had spent about 82 million Rwandan francs on the Uwinkindi case alone by January 2015.

Uwinkindi was a former Pastor of the Kayenzi Pentecostal Church in Nyamata Sector, Bugesera district. He was charged before ICTR with Genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.

Uwinkindi was arrested in Uganda on 30 June 2010 and was the first person to be transferred to Rwanda from the ICTR in April 2012.

Other suspects transferred from the ICTR for similar crimes are Leon Mugesera (extradited from Canada), Charles Bandora (Norway), and Bernard Munyagishari.

{
The Supreme Court has signed a memorandum of understanding with Horizon Construction Company to build offices for the High Court Chamber of International Crimes (HCCIC).}

The building, worth Rwf2.315 billion, will be constructed in Nyanza District.

The chamber has been hosted within the offices of the High Court in Kigali since its establishment in 2012.

Speaking after the signing ceremony in Kigali, yesterday, Beth Murora, the secretary-general for the Supreme Court, said the building will help the chamber to meet international standards in terms of logistics.

“The chamber will be equipped with all needed equipment to meet the standards we need as Rwandans but also those required internationally,” Murora said.

“The chamber has been taking on Genocide cases at the High Court. As the chamber gets its permanent offices and enough equipment needed to try international crimes, this will ensure safety of their files and documents.”

Murora said having the chamber closer to Mpanga Prison, where convincts of international crimes are incarcerated, will ease the process as everything will be handled in one district without necessarily having to visit Kigali as it used to be.

The building, that will host both the High Court Chamber for International Crimes and the Nyanza High Court, is expected to be completed within a year.

Construction of the building is to be jointly funded by the Government of Rwanda and the Netherlands.

HCCIC was established in 2012 with the mandate to try persons accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity extradited from foreign countries and from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The New Times

Police in Ngoma District have arrested six people in connection with stealing a money safe containing Rwf10 million from Konoike Construction Limited.

The suspects, who include five employees of the Japanese Construction firm operating in the district, were arrested on Saturday in possession of the stolen money.

They had Rwf3.1 million and $8,570.

The suspects include a company security guard and a cleaner.

Eastern Region Police Spokesperson Emmanuel Kayigi said the suspects committed the crime on Friday, when they connived to steal the safe from the offices of the company.

“They entered the company premises at night and stole the container. The guard, the cleaner, three other employees and an ironsmith who broke the safe are now under Police custody. Each of the suspects was found with a portion of the money after they had shared it among themselves,” he said.

“Investigations were successful largely because the company managers immediately informed Police about the incident. In a short time, we had zeroed in on the prime suspects and arrested them. We discovered that they had planned to escape to a neighbouring country.”

Yamasta Yasuki, who received the recovered money from Police on behalf of the firm, expressed gratitude toward Rwanda National Police for its efficient investigations, noting that he was surprised when they were informed that their money had been recovered.

“We have worked in many countries and such incidences have occurred before, but it is the first time we have received back the stolen money. Sometimes even when the suspects are arrested, it is difficult to get back all the money, but it was amazing that we got it all back,” Yasuki said.

The NewTimes

{The suspect, Dr. Charles Twagira, who was first indicted in March 2014 for genocide and crimes against humanity in Rwanda, was reportedly released on May 22. In 2009, he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a Rwandan court for crimes against humanity and genocide.}

That year, Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a France-based umbrella organisation which advocates for the rights of Genocide survivors, sued him for involvement in the Genocide.

Back then, Twagira who is accused of various counts of “Genocide, Complicity in Genocide and Complicity in crimes against humanity,” worked at a hospital in the city of Rouen and had just been naturalised as a French citizen.

His recent release, CPCR President Alain Gauthier says, is inconsistent with true justice.

“We especially feel for the families of victims. We could not imagine that, given the charges against him, Twagira could be released. We counted on the course of justice to tell the truth, but this decision casts doubt on the state of mind and serenity of the French magistrates,” Gauthier said.

For 15 years, he said, the group has witnessed rulings that seem incomprehensible and totally unfair, but they will not give up.

Gauthier says it is high time that the trials of Rwandan Genocide suspects take place on French territory.

As much as Twagira’s release “revolts us,” he said, it also reinforces their commitment to carry on with the struggle for justice, in serving the victims.

During the Genocide, Twagira worked as a regional health director in former Kibuye, western Rwanda, where he allegedly ordered the killings of tens of thousands of people, especially in the hospital he managed.

{{ The New Times}}

{{ {Hirondelle- }}The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will on Tuesday start hearing appeals in its last case, involving six personalities from the southern former province of Butare. The six include former Family Affairs Minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the only woman to be tried by the Tribunal.}

Defence and prosecution will take the stand in court until April 24, according to the calendar of the ICTR Appeals Chamber.

On April 24 Nyiramasuhuko and her co-defendants may, if they choose, address their appeals judges in person, before the judges retire to deliberate.

Nyiramasuhuko is not just only the only woman indicted by the ICTR but also by an international criminal court, and the allegations against her include ordering rape. The trial court sentenced her to life in prison on June 24, 2011 for conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, extermination, rape, persecution, violence to life, other inhumane acts and outrages to human dignity.

According to the trial court judges, the former minister “conspired with other members of the interim government to commit genocide in Butare (southern Rwanda)”. They said she exercised command authority over Interahamwe militia who committed rape in the offices of the Butare prefect.

The trial court also handed down life sentences on her son, Arsène Shalom Ntahobali, and on former mayor of Muganza Elie Ndayambaje.

Former mayor of Ngoma Joseph Kanyabashi was sentenced to 35 years in jail, while former prefects of Butare Sylvain Nsabimana and Alphonse Nteziryayo got 25 and 30 years respectively.

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko and her Canadian lawyer Nicole Bergevin have always claimed she was victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by the current Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

“It’s an abomination to claim that Pauline Nyiramasuhuko went so far as to order her son to rape young Tutsi women,” said Bergevin in her final arguments in April 2009.

Nyiramasuhuko expressed the same sentiment when she addressed the court in her own defence in September 2005. “How can you imagine that a woman like me would do such things?” she said.

Started in June 2001, this trial will also go down in history as the longest and no doubt the costliest in the history of international justice. Whereas the ICTR was due to close its doors at the end of last year, the UN Security Council had in December to prolong the mandate of the judges handling this case. According to the ICTR, the Appeals Court judgment, which will mark the end of the ICTR’s work, is not expected before August this year. The trial will have lasted 14 years and Pauline Nyiramasuhuko will have spent 16 years in preventive detention.

The ICTR was set up by a November 1994 Resolution of the UN Security Council with a mandate to track and bring to justice those suspected of being “most responsible” for acts of genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda or by Rwandan citizens in neighbouring countries between January 1 and December 31, 1994.

As the Nyiramasuhuko case nears its end, nine top ICTR suspects are still on the run, including rich businessman Félicien Kabuga, said to be the financier of the genocide; former Defence Minister Augustin Bizimana; and Protais Mpiranya, who headed the presidential guard of ex-president Juvénal Habyarimana. The killing of Habyarimana as his plane was downed over Kigali on the evening of April 6, 1994 was the spark that triggered the genocide.

If these three “big fish” are one day arrested, they will be tried by the Mechanism for International Criminal Courts (MICT), which is charged with handling residual functions of the ICTR and is already in place. As for the other six ICTR fugitives, their case files have been handed over to Rwanda, as part of the ICTR’s closure strategy.

ER/JC

({{Xinhua}}) — {The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will close down in September 2015 after over 20 years of prosecuting persons who played leading roles in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that claimed the lives of nearly 1 million innocent civilians.}

“In preparation for the closure, the Tribunal recently sent home 117 of its 414 staff members,” ICTR public information officer Danford Mpumilwa said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mpumilwa said an additional 159 international staff members will be retrenched in 2015.

“Should everything proceed according to schedule, the ICTR will shut down on September 30, 2015,” he said.

Mpumilwa said this date has been communicated to both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

The ICTR was created by the UN Security Council in November 1994 to prosecute perpetrators of the genocide with the first trials starting in 1997.

The ICTR information officer said only one major case remained for the Tribunal to complete after releasing the remaining staff members and close permanently.

“Incidentally, it is the case involving the only woman to be tried for the genocide which shocked the world,” he said.

Since it started trials in 1997, ICTR has convicted 61 people, of whom seven are still on appeal, and acquitted 14 others.

Eight people acquitted by the Tribunal and three others who were freed after serving their sentences were still living in a “safe house” in Arusha for lack of a host country.