8.06.12 - ICTR/NGIRABATWARE - FORMER PLANNING MINISTER CASE ADJOURNED TO JULY 2

Arusha, June 8, 2012 (FH) – The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Friday postponed to July 2 the trial of former Rwandan Planning Minister Augustin Ngirabatware, to allow his lawyers to investigate on certain issues involving stamps on his passport.  

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Before the adjournment, co-Counsel for the ex-minister, Claver Sindayigaya, was still cross-examining the last prosecution witness, a Nigerian diplomat, who commenced his evidence in chief on June 5, 2012.
 
Protected witness code named PRWIII had been called, as an additional witness, in the prosecution’s case to rebut the defence of alibi advanced by Ngirabatware that he was not in Rwanda between April 23 and May 23, 1994.
 
The witness had been testifying in total closed session since the beginning. But earlier, the prosecution had indicated that his testimony would center on a visa stamped on Ngirabatware's passport and refute his claim that he obtained this Nigerian visa in Senegal in 1994.
 
In the case, Ngirabatware is charged with conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide or in the alternative, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and extermination and rape as crimes against humanity.
 
FK/GF