But according to Alloys Mutabingwa, Rwanda’s special representative to the ICTR, there is nothing his country would like better than to have Mbarushimana extradited to Kigali.
“When the tribunal’s Prosecutor (Hassan Bubacar Jallow) saw the file, he found that there was no new evidence to overturn his predecessor’s conclusion that there was no enough evidence”, the spokesperson of the tribunal, Roland Amoussouga, told Hirondelle News Agency.
He however confirmed that, “the Prosecutor has received a request to reopen Mbarushimana’s file”.
The accused, a former employee of the UNDP in Kigali, was in 2003 granted refugee status in France.
The French government announced Tuesday that it would be transmitting Mbarushimana’s dossier to the “competent judicial authorities”. He is accused of being implicated in the murder of 33 people during the genocide.
According to the Associated Press, the UN has, for the past year, been discretely urging both Rwanda and the ICTR to push for Mbarushimana’s extradition.
Rwanda’s envoy to the ICTR revealed that the Prosecutor of the ICTR has already handed over Mbarushimana’s case file to Rwandan authorities. Mutabingwa argues that if the suspect cannot be transferred to the ICTR, then he should be handed over to Rwanda.
“The ICTR is the international competent judicial authority while Rwanda is the national one”, explained Mutabingwa.
He continued that the Rwandan office of the prosecutor has its own file on Mbarushimana.
“(Former ICTR Prosecutor) Carla Del Ponte made a grave mistake in dropping Mbarushimana’s case”, alleges Mutabingwa.
“She refused to prosecute him on the pretext that his responsibility did not compare to Bagosora’s and not because there was lack of evidence”, claimed the Rwandan diplomat.
Colonel Theoneste Bagosora was the directeur de cabinet in the Rwandan ministry of defence and is considered by the prosecutor as being the “mastermind” of the genocide.
KN/PB/ER