ICC
Ocampo presents report on Libya before Security Council: In his report to the Security Council on Wednesday, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, said the court would investigate in Libya at the invitation of the National Transitional Council (new authorities). He said the investigations would look at crimes allegedly committed by all parties to the recent conflict, including NATO and former rebel forces (NTC), including the alleged detention of civilians suspected to be mercenaries and the alleged killing of detained combatants.
Ngudjolo defence hearing continues: Congolese militiaman Mathieu Ngudjolo continued on Monday to present his own defence evidence. He is charged, alongside Germain Katanga, with crimes against humanity and war crimes following an attack of Bogoro village, Ituri, Eastern DRC on February 24, 2003 when over 200 people were killed.
Bemba case: The prosecution Monday continued calling witnesses in the trial of former Congolese rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba. He is charged for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003.
ICTR
UN Tribunal passes problematic issue on acquitted persons to Residual Mechanism: The ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga, this week announced that the UN's Residual Mechanism, due to take over from the ICTR in July 2012, will inherit the problem of finding host countries for acquitted persons. He said that the difficulties involving lack of willingness of States to accept acquitted persons on their soil, for their own reasons, would be the same. According to him, while diplomatic negotiations were still ongoing, the issue was still problematic. Three persons whose acquittals have been confirmed on appeal, currently trying to find a host country, are former Rwandan Transport Minister André Ntagerura, ex-military officer, General Gratien Kabiligi and Protais Zigiranyirazo, brother-in-law of president Juvénal Habyarimana.
ICTR announces delivery of Bagosora appeals judgment: The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR is set to hand down judgment on December 15, on the alleged mastermind of the 1994 genocide, Colonel Théoneste Bagosora and his colleague, Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva. Bagosora, who was Director of Cabinet in the Defence Ministry and Nsengiyumva, former in charge of military operations in Gisenyi prefecture, North Rwanda, are appealing life sentences imposed on them by lower court on December 18, 2008, for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Special depositions for Mpiranya: Special hearings to preserve evidence against genocide fugitive Protais Mpriranya, the former Rwandan Commander of Presidential Guard, also continued this week.
SCSL/Rwanda
Rwanda counters Sierra-Leone war crime convicts' claims: Rwanda's prison authorities Thursday refuted claims by eight Sierra Leonean war crimes convicts that they are being mistreated in a Rwandan jail. The Commissioner General of the Rwanda Correctional Service Paul Rwarakabije is quoted as saying that the prisoners, who were convicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone and transferred to Mpanga prison in southern Rwanda in 2009 to serve their respective sentences ranging between 15 and 52 years, were being accorded with more than what they deserved.
FK/ER
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