07.04.11 - ICTR/NZABONIMANA - DEFENCE OF FORMER MINISTER NZABONIMANA "OFFICIALLY" CLOSED

7 April 2011 By

Arusha, April 7, 2011 (FH) - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) declared on Thursday that the defence case of former minister of Youth Callixte Nzabonimana was officially closed, at the exception of the hearing of two French witnesses which identity was not disclosed.

Republish

To multiply its impact, information must flow freely

Republish our original articles for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons licence.

Click here to republish this content

0 min 38Approximate reading time

If they appear in court, the two French would testify about the presence of the accused at the French embassy in Kigali between April 7 and 11, 1994.

Nzabonimana is facing five charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, extermination and murder. The Prosecution presents him as the main instigator of the killings in his home prefecture of Gitarama.

Callixte Nzabonimana pleads not guilty, alleging that he was not in Gitarama but at the French embassy in Kigali at the time of the massacres.

The Prosecutor has been allowed to hear one more witness .

Nzabonimana, a member of the Presidential party MRND, was arrested in Tanzania on February 18, 2008.

His trial opened on November 9, 2009.

ER/GF