MEDIA TRIAL ADJOURNED UNTIL AUGUST 20TH

Arusha, July 10, 2001 (FH) - The Media Trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was on Tuesday adjourned until August 20th, after the judicial recess. This trial groups three suspects accused of having used the media to incite killings during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

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The three are: former director of Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) Ferdinand Nahimana; former editor of "Kangura" newspaper Hassan Ngeze; and former politician and RTLM board member Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza. The Media Trial started on October 23rd, 2000. It adjourned after the hearing of the 26th witness for the prosecution. The next witness is expected to be Italo-Belgian former RTLM presenter Georges Ruggiu, who pleaded guilty before the ICTR and was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. Before adjournment, the court dismissed a prosecution motion to add a new witness to its list. Prosecutor Steven Rapp of the US had asked that a European journalist who was in Rwanda at the time of the genocide be added to the list of prosecution witnesses, to replace two other witnesses who would not be testifying. The defence objected, on the grounds that this was unfair. Ngeze's American lawyer John Floyd asked when the prosecution would stop changing its list of witnesses and making the same old excuses, while Nahimana's British co-counsel Diana Ellis said that the prosecution was not telling the court the real situation. Only Nahimana is still attending the trial regularly. Barayagwiza has boycotted it from the start, saying that the ICTR is manipulated by the current Kigali government and that the trial will therefore not be fair. Ngeze says he is boycotting as of last Monday over a conflict with his lawyers. This case is before Trial Chamber One of the ICTR, composed of Judges Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, Erik Mose of Norway and Asoka de Zoysa Gunawardana of Sri Lanka. GG/JC/PHD/FH (ME0710E)