25.03.07 - ICTR/KAREMERA - NZIRORERA STILL OPPOSED TO THE CONTINUATION OF HIS TRIAL ...

ICTR/KAREMERA - NZIRORERA STILL OPPOSED TO THE CONTINUATION OF HIS TRIAL AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF ONE OF THE JUDGESArusha, March 25, 2007 (FH) – The defense team of Joseph Nzirorera, Secretary General of the former presidential party, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), on Monday appealed the decision to continue the trial in which he appears with two other former national directors of this political group which dissolved in 2001. After the withdrawal in January of the Ghanaian judge Emile Francis Short, the remaining judges, Dennis Byron from Saint Kitts and Nevis and the Burkinabe Gustave Kam decided on March 6 to continue the trial with a substitute judge. This continuation was opposed not only by Nzirorera but also by the former president of the MRN Mathieu Ngirumpatse who demanded a new trial. Only the former vice-president of the party, Edouard Karemara accepted a continuation of the trial, but still under conditions. As Mathieu Ngirumpatse’s request has already been rejected, his defense has already appealed. In its plea submitted Monday, Mr. Peter Robinson, principal lawyer for Nzirorera, asked the Appeals Chamber to “revisit the decision of the remaining judges” and reiterated that it would be better advised to open a new trial. The American lawyer suggested the remand of the matter to the remaining judges so that they could re-examine if the continuation of the trial would truly serve the interests of justice in light of the deadline of the end of 2008. He assessed that in effect, in light of the remaining time between now and the end of the Tribunal’s mandate – at the end of December 31, 2008 – and the length of the prosecution phase which is still far from over, the defense teams will not have time to present their case. At the time of the announcement of Judge Short’s withdrawal, only 13 prosecution witnesses out of a scheduled hundred or so have been heard in this trial which started in September 2005. As an alternative measure, Mr. Robinson proposed to the Appeals judges to bring the trial before the President of the ICTR so that he could designate a chamber to examine the eventual transfer of the case to a national jurisdiction other than Rwanda. The removal of certain cases before national jurisdictions is part of the Completion Strategy of the Tribunal’s mandate. Tried for crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, Ngirumpatse, Nzirorera and Karemera have pleaded not guilty. This trial, considered one of the most important of the ICTR, has encountered many difficulties. In May 2004, a first trial, started in November 2003 with the same defendants and a politician who was not a member of the MRND was cancelled after the President of the Chamber, Andresia Vaz, was obligated to withdraw for “appearance of partiality.” ER/PB/KD © Hirondelle News Agency