15.11.07 - ICTR/FRANCE - THE ICTR TRANSMITTED TO FRENCH COURTS ALL THE INFORMATION REQUESTED

  Arusha, 15 November 2007 (FH) - The office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) affirmed Thursday to have transmitted to French courts all the information which had been requested within the framework of the transfer procedures of two accused living in France.

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On 26 September, the Court of Appeal of Paris had asked the ICTR to provide it, before Thursday 15 November, additional information, before coming to a conclusion about the validity of the arrest warrants targeting two alleged Rwandan génocidaires wanted by this United Nations tribunal.
 
The investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal of Paris will re-examine the cases of Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a 49-year old catholic priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, former prefect of Gikongoro (southern Rwanda), 62, next Wednesday.
   
"All the information requested by the Court of Appeal of Paris was transmitted to the French authorities", indicated to the Hirondelle agency, Timothy Gallimore, the spokesperson for the office of the prosecutor of the ICTR,
   
The Court of Appeal asked, in particular, for original or certified documents, and not copies, for some of the documents provided in support of its arrest warrants.
 
It also asked that the tribunal specify to it if the dispossession procedure to drop the cases to the benefit of French courts is still on hand. The ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, had indeed requested last June the transfer of both accused to French courts. The chamber of the tribunal designated to decide on this request has, however, not yet delivered its decision.
 
The Court of Appeal of Paris had ordered the release of the two men on 19 September, two weeks after their arrest, pursuant to the arrest warrants. They had first been arrested on 20 July pursuant to the first arrest warrants of the ICTR, before being released on 1 August. The Court of Appeal had then refused to "give a favourable continuation" to the arrest warrants, estimating that the ICTR had not come to a conclusion about the question of its dispossession to the benefit of France.
 
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© Hirondelle News Agency