ICTR
Judges transfer Sikubwabo's case to Rwanda for trial:
On Monday, judges ordered that the case of genocide-fugitive and former Mayor Charles Sikubwabo be transferred to Rwanda. They noted that Rwanda had made material changes in its law and had indicated its capacity and willingness to prosecute cases referred by the Tribunal. According to the referral ruling, the Tribunal’s Prosecutor should hand over materials supporting the indictment to the Rwandan Prosecutor General not later than 30 days after the decision has become final. Sikubwabo, former Mayor of Gishyita commune in Kibuye prefecture is charged with genocide or in the alternative complicity in genocide as well as conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.
Zigiranyirazo demands one million dollars as compensation:
Former Rwandan governor, Protais Zigiranyirazo, who was acquitted by the Tribunal in 2009, but still living in a safe house in Arusha, has filed an application, seeking compensation of one million dollars for long detention in jail. In a motion obtained in the ICTR website on Tuesday, Zigiranyirazo, a brother-in-law of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, claims that he would forever be unable to regain that excessively long period of his life, almost a decade, where he was unable to earn a living, spend time with his wife, children or grandchildren. He has also applied for a visa to rejoin his family in Belgium following unsuccessful negotiations between the country’s authorities and ICTR Registry.
RWANDA
Rwandan scholar turns down Kinyarwanda questioning:
The office of the Prosecution in Kigali Monday reported that Leon Mugesera, a Rwandan scholar accused of delivering a speech in 1992 that allegedly triggered Tutsi genocide, has refused to be interrogated in Kinyarwanda. But the Rwandan Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga says the procedure was expected to go on in Kinyarwanda, even if he decides not to answer questions in that language. According to him, the speech was delivered in Kinyarwanda, hence some expressions and insinuations which were used would lose their meaning in the process of translation from one language to another. The trial for Mugesera, who was deported in January, 2012 from Canada, where he has been living since 1993, is set to open on April 2.
ICC
Defence in Bemba’s trial seeks two years to present evidence:
Jean-Pierre Bemba’s lawyers Tuesday informed the judges that their client’s case would last for two years. They also gave August 6, 2012, as the likely date when the first defense witness would testify. Judges are expected to render a decision on the matter later. The Congolese senator faces charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003.
FK/NI