A week before, on 31 October, it will have rendered a decision on his request for release. Ntawukuriryayo, was arrested last Tuesday in France at the request of the ICTR.
During the hearing, the president of the investigative chamber, Edith Boizette, proceeded to the formal notification of the charges of "genocide, complicity to genocide" retained by the ICTR against the former sub-prefect of Gisagara (southern Rwanda). He is accused of being responsible for the deaths of 25 000 persons between 21 April and 25 April 1994.
Dominique Ntawukuriryayo stated to have arrived in France in 1999 and to reside in Carcassonne (Aude) since 2000. His lawyer, Thierry Gréciano, specified that his client was legally in France. A group of twenty people, members of his family and friends, went to the court to show their support for him.
Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, born in 1942, sub-prefect of Gisagara (southern Rwanda), was arrested on 16 October under the terms of an arrest warrant issued by the ICTR.
In April 2006, 32 Rwandan nationals pressed charges in Carcassonne against Mr. Ntawukuriryayo for genocide and complicity to genocide. An order of non-receivability was rendered on 21 August due to the reason that the police had not found him at the address indicated by the plaintiffs.
In a letter addressed at the beginning of the week to the Attorney General of the Court of Appeal of Montpellier (Hérault), the lawyers for the plaintiffs, Sophie Dechaumet and Michel Laval, assured that Mr. Ntawukuriryayo was arrested on 16 October in Carcassonne "at the residence mentioned in the complaint" of 2006. They were indignant at a situation which "highlights a serious dysfunction of the police and, without it being possible to demonstrate, of the legal authorities".
Alain Gauthier, the president of the collective of the civil parties for Rwanda (CPCR) indicated that he would file Thursday a new complaint in Carcassonne against the former sub-prefect.
PA/PB/MM
© Agence Hirondelle
24.10.07 - ICTR/FRANCE - THE CASE OF DOMINIQUE NTAWUKURIRYAYO WILL BE HEARD ON 7 NOVEMBER
Paris, 24 October 2007 (FH) -- The Court of Appeal of Paris will hear on 7 November the extradition request of a former Rwandan sub-prefect, Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, filed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
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