Former Rwandan Information Minister Niyitegeka is currently serving a life imprisonment sentence in Mali. He had asked for the appointment of an amicus curiae (friend of the court) to investigate in particular a witness code named GGV, with a view to initiate proceedings against him for false testimony.
“The Chamber finds that Niyitegeka has not shown that strong grounds exist for believing that GGV has knowingly and wilfully given false testimony,” reads part of the decision dated November 28, 2012.
The ex-minister had, alternatively, sought from the judges to rescind protective measures for all prosecution witnesses who had testified in his case to allow disclosure of their identities and instigation of proceedings against them for false testimony before other courts, notably national prosecution in Rwanda.
But judges deemed that for the Tribunal to consider changing protective measures so that foreign jurisdictions might get confidential information for use in national proceedings, a request must be made or authorized by the relevant judicial authority of the State in question.
“The Tribunal has received no such request with respect to investigations against witnesses in Niyitegeka’s case,” the judges ruled. “The Chamber, therefore, dismisses Niyitegeka’s alternative request as frivolous.”
The former member of cabinet in the Rwandan interim government in 1994 was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity on May 15, 2003, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Appeals Chamber confirmed both conviction and sentence on July 9, 2004.
FK/NI/JC