\nArusha, February 15, 2001(FH) The new lawyer for genocide suspect Jean Bosco Barayagwiza on Thursday began cross-examining a prosecution witness, but first apologised that the exercise would be limited because his client had refused to meet him. Asked the reason, Giacomo Caldarera of Italy said Barayagwiza had not seen fit to receive him.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere were other nuances which I prefer not to reveal in public,\u201d the lawyer continued. Sources at the UN detention facility in Arusha told Hirondelle that the accused pinned a notice to the door of his cell with the message: \u201cAccess Forbidden for Mercenaries for Injustice and for Mafiosi. Mr. Caldarera you are unwanted even as a prisoner\u201d. The trial of Barayagwiza and two other suspects in the so-called \u201cMedia Trial\u201d was suspended for one day on Wednesday, after Caldarera asked for time to meet his client and prepare the cross-examination. But Baraygwiza, who has been boycotting his trial and ordered his lawyers to do the same, had already made it clear he did not want Caldarera. Barayagwiza was director of political affairs at the foreign ministry of the former Rwandan government, founder of the pro-Hutu CDR party and a board member of radio station RTLM. He is being tried with two other suspects linked to media which allegedly incited Hutus to kill Tutsisduring the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. They are former RTLM director Ferdinand Nahimana and former editor of Kangura newspaper Hassan Ngeze. Barayagwiza has been boycotting the trial since it began last October 23rd, saying that it will not be fair because the ICTR is manipulated by the \u201cdictatorial anti-Hutu regime in Kigali\u201d. Last week, the ICTR finally authorized Barayagwiza\u2019s previous lawyers, Carmelle Marchessault of Canadaand David Danielson of the US, to withdraw from the case. They had argued that they could not go against the orders of their client to boycott the courtroom. The court ordered the Registry to appoint a new lawyer immediately in the interests of justice, and Caldarera was appointed the following day. In a \u201cpress release\u201d dated February 13th, Barayagwiza says: \u201cMr Caldarera has the role of not resisting the villainous laws of the justice of the Victor, but rather, of making them triumph\u201d. He insinuates that Caldarera is a Sicilian Mafioso, appointed in dubious circumstances by the head ofthe ICTR lawyers\u2019 section who is also Italian. Barayagwiza says that: \u201cthe Chamber did not specify at all in which quality the new Counsel must intervene in the case. Is he a normal Counsel, a duty Counsel or a Counsel assigned \u2018in the interest of justice\u2019? [\u2026] It is rather the Registrar who, exceeding the powers that the Statute and the Rules of the Tribunal confer to him, has assigned Mr. Caldarera as Counsel representing Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza \u2018in the interest of justice\u2019!\u201dThe accused claims that \u201cMr. Caldarera does have obviously only one mission entrusted to him by the judges of this Tribunal: to mask the parody of justice and to justify the planned conviction of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza. \u201dEvidentiary hearing for Ngeze?A second accused, Hassan Ngeze, has also been boycotting the courtroom since Monday last week, although his American lawyer John Floyd and co-counsel Ren\u00e9 Martel of Canada continue to represent him at trial. Ngeze filed a motion to have all charges against him dropped on grounds that his rights had been grossly violated. In particular, Ngeze alleges that UN security staff stole or destroyed vital defence documents during a search of his prison cell on January 10th. The raid was prompted by information that Ngeze was running an Internet website carrying illegal photographs and defamatory material Floyd has asked for an evidentiary hearing into the January 10th security search, but the judges have asked him to justify on what legal grounds this could be done. Floyd was originally due to present his arguments on Monday, but told Hirondelle the judges had submitted in closed session a list of ten questions which raised important issues and required more legal research. On Thursday, Floyd told the court he had been unable to conduct the necessary research because of logistical problems, and asked for more time. \u201cIf I were in Washington DC, this would have been done a week ago,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I am not in Washington DC, I am in Arusha where the electricityfails and we don\u2019t have a law library\u201d. Floyd told Hirondelle that the issues raised were extremely thorny ones, which could set legal precedents at the ICTR. Among other things, they concern the relative powers of the Chambers (judges) and the Registry. Presiding judge Navanethem Pillay said the court was concerned about Ngeze\u2019s continued boycott, and had therefore hoped that this matter could be \u201cbrought to finality\u201d as soon as possible. She said the court could compel Ngeze to attend the trial, but \u201cbecause you two [Floyd and Martel] are representing him in court, we will respect his decision\u201d. Floyd\u2019s arguments for an evidentiary hearing will be heard next week. JC\/FH (ME_0215e)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, February 15, 2001(FH) The new lawyer for genocide suspect Jean Bosco Barayagwiza on Thursday began cross-examining a prosecution witness, but first apologised that the exercise would be limited because his client had refused to meet him. Asked the reason, Giacomo Caldarera of Italy said Barayagwiza had not seen fit to receive him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-16081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n