The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has scheduled to try Major Protaise Mpiranya in absence supposedly dead.
Information from Arusha based court indicate that ICTR will start special evidential hearings held in camera in the case of Major Mpiranya,
Thirty witnesses have been called to stand by the prosecution tomorrow on Wednesday.
A Defence lawyer has been assigned; he will be cross-examining witnesses and leading his own investigations.
The Tribunal has already started conducting similar proceedings in Kabuga’s case and intends to commence soon special evidential hearing in the case of former Defence Minister Augustin Bizimana supposedly hiding in the DRC.
The 1994 Genocide suspect Major Mpiranya the ex-commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion is claimed to be dead by his publishers ‘Edition source du Nil’.
The Author of the book ‘Rwanda; the lost paradise’ published by Edition source du Nil, he is said to have passed away on October 5, 2006 and his book was published posthumously in October 2010.
Nevertheless, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow believes him to be alive and hiding in Zimbabwe.
August 13, 2011, Zimbabwean police Constable Innocent Chinembire of the force’s public relations department announced on the state-run Radio Zimbabwe that an arrest warrant against Major Mpiranya has been issued.
He claimed that the special CID taskforce was trying to track him down. He also added that Major Mpiranya has been adopting false identities such as: James Kakule and Patrick Sambo.
The international media also reported other aliases: Yahaya Mohamed, Hirwa Protais Alain, Alain Protais Muhire, and Mambo Mapendo Augustin.
Major Mpiranya was born in 1960 in Giciye, in the former Gisenyi prefecture, he graduated from the Superior Military school of Kigali, and was trained in Germany and France.
In 1993, he was second-in-command of military operations and intelligence in the Presidential Guard Battalion, and was appointed Commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion in the same year.
Major Mpiranya is accused of participating in the planning, preparation and execution of the genocide.
The presidential guards, under Mpiranya’s command, are alleged to have been responsible for the sexual assault and murder of the former Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwiringiyimana, and also taking into custody and killing ten Belgian UNAMIR soldiers.
He is charged by way of his personal and superior responsibility for the crimes alleged. The United States government has offered a reward of US$5 million to anyone who furnishes information leading to the arrest or conviction of Major Mpirinya in any country.
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