02.06.10 - ICTR/RWANDA - "ERLINDER'S ARREST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS WORK AT THE ICTR",RWANDA SAYS

2 June 2010 By

Arusha, June 2, 2010 (FH) - Rwanda Prosecutor general Martin Ngoga stated on Wednesday that Peter Erlinder's arrest in Kigali last week had nothing to do with his defence job before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

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Peter Erlinder was arrested on May 28 over accusations related to "negation of the 1994 genocide".

Erlinder is President of the ICTR defence lawyers association in Arusha. He is currently defending former major Aloys Ntabakuze, who has been sentenced by the ICTR to life in jail in by the lower court and is now awaiting his appeal trial.

The American lawyer was in Kigali to be part of the defence team of Victoire Ingabire. An opponent to Paul Kagame's regime, she is charged with negation of the genocide, collaboration to a terrorist organization and spreading ethnic division.

Several ICTR defence lawyers requested the tribunal to ask Rwanda for his immediate release, threatening the institution to break their contract.

" Erlinder's case has nothing to do with what he has said or written as part of his ICTR's mission", Ngoga asserted on the phone from Kigali.

"We do respect our obligation to cooperate with the ICTR. We have not violated our commitments (...) Being an ICTR attorney does not confer diplomatic immunity for crimes committed outside of this precise scope", he added.

ER/GF