21.02.07 - ICTR/NZABIRINDA - SENTENCE FRIDAY FOR AN EX-YOUTH ORGANISER

Arusha, February 21, 2007 – The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will announce its sentence Friday in the trial of the former youth organiser in the south of the country, Joseph Nzabirinda, nickname Biroto, who is the seventh accused who has pleaded guilty before the United Nations court.Nzabirinda, who was a businessman in 1994, used to be responsible for athletic activities and socio-economic advancement for youths in the Butare prefecture.During the last hearing on January 17, the defendant, 50, expressed his “profound remorse” and recognized his “cowardice” for having been an “approving spectator” in the murder of his Tutsi neighbours in 1994.Under the guilty plea agreement entered last December, the prosecution and the defence agreed on a sentence ranging between 5 and 8 years in prison.The two parties have asked the Chamber to respect this agreement.Nzabirinda was arrested in Brussels December 21, 2001 while he was working as an investigator in a defence team of an accused before the ICTR.The lightest sentence given by the Tribunal, six years of detention, was rendered against the ex-municipal Councillor, Vincent Rutaganira, and the former militia leader and technical director of the famous Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), Joseph Serugendo, who died last year.In the two cases, the accused pleaded guilty.According to the spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor, Timothy Gallimore (USA), other confessions are being negotiated.Mr. Gallimore meanwhile did not give further details.The president of the ICTR, the Norwegian Judge Erik Mose himself declared, during a recent meeting with the staff, that “there could be fewer new trials, as the possibility of new guilty pleas has not been ruled out.”Except for the ex-prime minister Jean Kambanda, sentenced to life in prison, the defendants who have confessed have until now benefited from considerable reductions in their sentences.The confessions, sparing the ICTR the long and contentious procedures of a trial, constitute an important objective for the Tribunal, which the Security Council has asked by next year to finish all proceedings before the Trial Chambers.Certain agreements between the Office of the Prosecutor and the defendants have been denounced by the Rwandan government as being too favourable to the accused, which Kigali has stressed were the architects of the genocide.The tribunal currently has rendered 27 convictions and 5 acquittals.ER/AT/KD© Hirondelle News Agency