29.10.09 - ICTR/ZIGIRANYIRAZO - ICTR APPEALS COURT TO RENDER JUDGEMENT ON ‘'MR Z'' NOVEMBER 16

29 October 2009 By

Arusha, 29 October, 2009 (FH) - The Higher Court of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will deliver judgment in the appeal of Protais Zigiranyirazo, brother in-law of the late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, on November 16 in Arusha, reports Hirondelle Agency.

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Both, prosecution and defence have appealed against the 20-year sentence imposed on the suspect on December 18, 2008. Zigiranyirazo, well known as ‘'Mr Z'', was convicted for 1994 genocide and extermination.

The accused had submitted 17 grounds to overturn the first instance court's sentence and specifically challenged the findings at Kesho Hill and Kiyovu road blocks in the capital Kigali, where several ethnic Tutsis were massacred in April, 1994.

However, the prosecution maintained that the Trial Chamber was not wrong in its findings, as the charges were supported by various credible witnesses and instead wanted the Court to hand-down a life imprisonment to the former influential leader and businessman in Rwanda.

The defence has pleaded for acquittal of the appellant or reduces the 20-year sentence substantially.

NI/SC/GF