BARAYAGWIZA AGAIN DEMANDS HIS RELEASE

Arusha, August 1st, 2000 (FH) - Rwandan genocide suspect Jean-BoscoBarayagwiza is contesting a March decision of the International CriminalTribunal (ICTR) Appeals Court overturning a release order, on the groundsthat the prosecution supplied false information, the independent newsagency Hirondelle reports on Tuesday. Barayagwiza, who was foreign affairs adviser to the Rwandan interimgovernment that presided over the genocide, is asking the Appeals Court torelease him on procedural grounds, in accordance with its original decisionof November 3rd, 1999.

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On that date, the court found that his rights hadbeen repeatedly violated during his initial detention in Cameroon and afterhis transfer to the ICTR prison in Arusha, and ordered his release. But it revised that decision at the end of March, after the prosecutionpresented "new facts". The court ruled that there had been violations, butof a lesser degree than it had originally found. It said Barayagwiza shouldbe tried by the ICTR, and that the violations should be taken into accountat the time of his judgement. If the Trial Court finds him not-guilty, itsaid, he should be awarded financial compensation. If it finds him guilty,then his sentence should be reduced. However, in an urgent motion filed on Monday, Barayagwiza contests theAppeals Court's March decision, claiming that its November one should stillstand. His arguments are based on more "new facts" uncovered by hisCanadian defence lawyer Carmelle Marchessault during a visit to Cameroonfrom June 17th to July 8th this year. Barayagwiza was arrested in March 1996. According to the original decisionof the Appeals Court, he was held in Cameroon for 19 months without beinginformed of the charges against him. ICTR rules stipulate that provisionaldetention should not exceed 90 days. The latest motion says that "the prosecution tricked the Appeals Chamber byproducing false documents and leading the judges to believe that chargeswere laid against him as early as May 3rd, 1996, but the files show thatthe Cameroon Appeals Court was waiting for prosecution files on the accusedwhich were not transferred before his indictment was drawn up on October22nd, 1997, and confirmed on October 23rd, 1997". Barayagwiza's defence lawyers say the Cameroonian government showed duediligence in its handling of the Barayagwiza case, and that proceduralerrors are the fault of the ICTR prosecution. They are asking that thegovernment of Cameroon appear as amicus curiae (friend of the court), inthe interests of justice. The defence also contests the validity of a declaration by the US rovingambassador for war crimes David Scheffer, in which he says he intervenedseveral times to pressure the Cameroonian government, which was refusing totransfer Barayagwiza to the ICTR prison in Arusha. Barayagwiza's defenceclaims that Scheffer was misled by the prosecution, as he was asked tocorroborate facts which the ICTR Deputy Prosecutor "presented to him in aselective and restrictive way, although the said prosecutor knew they wereincomplete, incorrect and untrue". Barayagwiza, as a founder member of Radio Télévision Libre des MilleCollines (RTLM), is to be tried jointly with two other suspects associatedwith the so-called hate media that incited genocide in 1994. Their trial isset to start on September 18th. Barayagwiza has also appealed against thejoinder of his case to those of Ferdinand Nahimana, former director of RTLMand Hassan Ngeze, former editor of the Hutu extremist newspaper "Kangura". AT/JC/FH (BR%0801E )