BISHOP'S COUNSEL TO PURSUE CLAIM OF ILLEGAL ARREST

Arusha, April 30, 2001 (FH) - Counsel for former Rwandan bishop and genocide suspect Samuel Musabyimana says he will continue efforts to have his client's arrest in Kenya declared illegal, reports the independent news agency Hirondelle. This comes after the Nairobi High Court said onMonday that the lawyer's complaints had been overtaken by events.

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Musabyimana had already been transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. Counsel Ojwang Agina said that he would on Wednesday file a motion to the Nairobi court "for a declaratory order that the arrest and handing over of the Bishop without following due procedure was illegal". ICTR Chief of Press and Public Affairs Tom Kennedy meanwhile told Hirondelle that the Bishop's initial appearance is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Bishop Musabyimana was arrested last Thursday by Kenyan authorities following a warrant of arrest issued by the ICTR on March 13th. Agina sought a court order asking the Kenyan government to produce the bishop or state his whereabouts on the basis that those who arrested him did not produce a warrant and did not show any identification documents. On Monday, a state counsel appeared for the Attorney General's office and a police spokesman was present during a hearing at the Nairobi High Court. Agina told Hirondelle that the ICTR arrest warrant was produced in court, but that this was not enough under Kenyan law. "We are not yet satisfied and we will continue to challenge the manner of his arrest," Agina told Hirondelle. The lawyer added that he would be happy to represent Musyabimana at the ICTR if he was appointed to do so. The 44-year-old former Anglican bishop was originally arrested in South Africa in September 2000 on immigration charges and deported to Kenya, where he escaped. Musabyimana faces four charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity for his role in massacres of Tutsis taking refuge in his diocese during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The indictment says he ordered the refugees to be registered according to their ethnic group, and that these registration lists were used by Interahamwe militia who massacred Tutsis. SW/JC/FH (MU0430e)