24.11.08 - ICTR/TRIALS - ICTR: NUMBER OF TRIAL HEARING HOURS SLOW DOWN BY A THIRD THIS YEAR

24 November 2008 By

Arusha, 24 November (FH) - The number of hearing hours held at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) during the first ten months of 2008 is lower by more than 30% than the same period in the two previous years, according to a source in Arusha.

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In 2006 and 2007, the three ICTR Chambers had held until October each year approximately 3,750 hours of hearing whereas in 2008 this figure reached hardly 2,550 hours. Questioned by the Hirondelle Agency, the press service neither confirmed nor denied these figures, nor did they attempt to explain the reasons of this slowdown.

According to several sources, this reduction was notably due to the illness of one of the defendants in the Karemera case, which stopped all its hearings this summer as the prosecution had just rested its case. It is also due to the end of the proceedings in several important trials and which the judges are writing their rulings.

The ICTR, which has already cost more than a billion US dollars by trying 36 persons responsible for the genocide, must still try 38 people. There are 28 accused currently on trial, whereas ten should be tried by the end of 2009.

PB/ER/MM/SC/GF