"The prosecution submits that it discharged its obligation to disclose the audio records in issue to the defence on February 14, 2011, which was well before the Trial Chamber rendered the impugned decision on April 1, 2011," it states in its urgent motion for reconsideration.
According to the prosecution, co-counsel for the defendant, Mylene Dimitri, received the audio records requested of April 9,10,11,16 and 17, 1994 and that of May 24, 1994 in court in CD format on February 14, 2011 and acknowledged receipt in writing.
The mentioned April 1994 audio broadcasts allegedly support the defendant's alibi that he was in Kigali attending swearing in ceremony of the Rwandan Interim Government and cabinet meetings whereas that of May 1994 shows an interview on his official trips outside Rwanda between April 23 and May 23, 1994.
Such audio records, the defence alleges, contradict allegations in the indictment that Ngirabatware was in Gisenyi, Northern Rwanda, on those dates committing serious crimes. "In view of the new fact that disclosure of the material in issue was made on February 14, 2011, a fact that was not known to the Trial Chamber when it rendered the impugned decision on April 1, 2011, it is fair and just (to) reconsider and reverse its findings... and find, instead, that the prosecution was not in breach of its disclosure obligations," it submitted.
The trial resumes on June 6, 2011 when Ngirabatware is expected to continue presenting his defence case. He is charged with genocide or in the alternative conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and extermination and rape as crimes against humanity.
FK/NI/GF
© Hirondelle News Agency