01.09.10 - ICTR/NDAHIMANA - PROSECUTION LISTS 15 WITNESSES IN NDAHIMANA TRIAL

Arusha, September 1, 2010 (FH) -The prosecution is expecting to call 15 witnesses in the trial of Grégoire Ndahimana, former mayor of Kivumu Commune in Kibuye prefecture, Western Rwanda, scheduled to take off September 6, before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

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Chief of Prosecution Richard Karegyesa told Hirondelle News Agency on Wednesday, however, that he would not wish to give more details on the matter.

Ndahimana is charged with genocide or complicity in genocide, in the alternative and extermination as crime against humanity. Between April 6 and 20, 1994, it is alleged, the defendant was responsible for killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the Tutsi population.

He is also alleged to have planned the massacres at Nyange Parish jointly with genocide-convict, Father Athanase Seromba, now serving life imprisonment and genocide-suspect still at large, Fulgence Kayishema. Two thousands Tutsi refugees were killed at the parish.

Ndahimana, born in 1952, was arrested on August 10, 2009 at Kachuga Camp in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a combined operation by the ICTR, the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUC) and the DRC law enforcement agencies.

He was transferred to the United Nations Detention Facility in Arusha on August 21, 2009. He made his initial appearance on September 28, 2009 and pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The trial of another genocide-suspect and former army officer of the Rwandan Armed Forces, Capt. Idelphonse Nizeyimana, is expected to start in November. No trial date has been set in the case of Rwandan Pentecostal Church Pastor, Jean-Bosco Uwinkindi.

FK/NI/GF

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