ALLEGED DEATH SQUAD LEADER TRANSFERRED TO RWANDA TRIBUNAL

Arusha, October 4, 2001 (FH) - – Former Rwandan prefect and alleged death squad leader Protais Zigiranyirazo was on Wednesday transferred from Belgium to the detention facility of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, the ICTR has confirmed. Zigiranyirazo, or "Mr.

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Z", is the brother-in-law of former Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana, whose death sparked the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He is charged with one count of extermination, or alternatively murder, as a crime against humanity. The charges relate mainly to killings carried out at roadblocks near his residences during genocide. Mr. Z was prefect of Ruhengeri in northwest Rwanda from 1974 to 1989 and was also a wealthy businessman. The ICTR indictment says he was perceived as a member of the "Akazu", the powerful circle around former president Juvénal Habyarimana. It also links him to death squads and the so-called "Zero Network" which, according to human rights organizations, were set up after Tutsi RPF guerrillas invaded Rwanda in 1990. Zigiranyirazo was arrested in Belgium at the end of July, on an arrest warrant from the ICTR. He had been detained at Brussels airport in early June because of doubts about his travel documents, and was kept in an asylum seekers centre as the ICTR drew up an indictment. The accused's Belgian lawyer Luc de Temmerman says his client has been wrongly arrested and that "the facts contained in the indictment are a collection of deliberate errors and lies, unworthy of an international court". SW/JC/PHD/FH (ZI1004e)