31.05.12 - ICC/DRC – JUDGES DISMISS PROSECUTOR APPLICATION AGAINST MUDACUMURA

The Hague, May 31, 2012 (FH) - Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Thursday dismissed the Prosecutor’s application for a warrant of arrest against congolese rebel Sylvestre Mudacumura.

On May 15, Luis Moreno Ocampo requested the judges to issue an arrest warrant against Mudacumura for crimes against humanity committed in North and South Kivu provinces, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, between June 2009 and August 2010.

The three judges found that the application “fell short of the proper level of specificity” in describing the alleged crimes “for which the person’s arrest is sought”.

They added that Ocampo did not provide “proper counts or any other kind of accompanying description of the specific facts underlying the crimes” allegedly committed in North and South Kivu Provinces (Democratic Republic of the Congo), and failed to “set out the specific references to the alleged crimes”.

This decision comes one day after the Appeals Chamber dismissed the prosecution’s appeal challenging the refusal by the lower court to confirm charges against another leader of the FDLR, Callixte Mbarushimana, for “lack of sufficient evidence”.

 

SM/GF

 

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