Arusha, April 23, 2007 (FH) \u2013 The genocide trial of three former directors of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), ongoing since September 2005 before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will not start anew, contrary to the wishes of the three defendants, it was learned from a judicial source on Monday.
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\nAfter the withdrawal in January of the Ghanaian Judge Emile Francis Short, the president of the former presidential party, Mathieu Ngirumpatse and the Secretary-General Joseph Nzirorera had asked for a new trial whereas the former Vice-President of the party, Edouard Karemara consented, with conditions, to the continuation of the trial with a substitute judge.
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\nAccused of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, the three men who have pleaded not-guilty are specifically charged with murders and rapes committed in 1994 by members of the Interahamwe militia, the MRND youth group.
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\nOn March 6, the remaining judges, Denis Byron of Saint Kitts and Nevis and the Burkinabe Gustave Kam decided to continue the trial, a decision which Ngirumpatse and Nziorera appealed.
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\nIn its decision made on April 20, of which the Hirondelle Agency obtained a copy on Monday, the Appeals Chamber rejected the arguments made by the two former MRND heavyweights and confirmed the decision of the Trial Chamber to continue the trial with a new judge.
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\n\u201cIn sum, the Appeals Chamber finds no merit in the arguments raised by the Applicants with respect to alleged errors by the remaining judges,\u201d reads the decision \u00a0\u201cThe Appeals Chamber finds that the continuation of the Applicants\u2019 trial would not result in a failure to uphold their fair trial rights,\u201d adds the text which puts an end to months of uncertainty.
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\nOn January 19, while only 13 prosecution witnesses out of a scheduled hundred-something had been heard, Judge Short, returning from a judicial recess, announced his withdrawal for health reasons.
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\nSeizing the opportunity, Ngirumpatse and Nzirorera\u2019s defense teams immediately argued that the trial had been even otherwise marred by numerous errors of law and that only a new trial could correct these errors.
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\nThe other argument raised was an issue of time: \u00a0the trial, which had been going on slowly, would not finish by December 31, 2008, the date set by the United Nations to put an end to the work of this Tribunal. \u00a0They also asked the ICTR for a transfer before a national court, but in a country other than their own.
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\nRejected in Trial Chamber by the two remaining judges, the arguments were also unconvincing to the Appeals Judges.
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\nAccording to non-official sources, the trial could reopen at the end of May and an individual extension beyond the deadline of December 31, 2008 is possible.
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\nThis impasse which the Trial Chamber resolved is not the first for this trial considered one of the most important of the ICTR. \u00a0On November 27, 2003, after several fits and starts, a first trial opened in which the three former MRND leaders appeared with a party opponent, the former Minister of Instruction, Andre Rwamakuba.
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\nThe acts which on the one hand, leaders of the party of President Juvenal Habyarimana were accused and those in Rwamakuba\u2019s prosecution justified a joinder, a strategy which the Office of the Prosecutor at the time used. \u00a0At the end of April 2004, a first impasse arose when the defense revealed the existence of a relationship between the Senegalese President of the Chamber, Andresia Vaz, and one of the members of the prosecution team on the case, her compatriot Dior Fall.
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\nEventually, the Appeals Chamber ordered a trial \u201cde novo,\u201d after which the Prosecution, reviewing his initial strategy, asked for a separate trial for Rwamakuba.
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\nAs a result, Judge Dennis Byron from Saint Kitts and Nevis presided in two trials: \u00a0that of Rwamakuba which opened on June 9, 2005, and that of Karemera et. al. which opened 3 months later.
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\nWhile the MRND trial continues, Rwamakuba has been free since his acquittal on September 20, 2006.
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\nER\/PB\/KD \u00a0
\n\u00a9 Hirondelle News Agency <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, April 23, 2007 (FH) \u2013 The genocide trial of three former directors of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), ongoing since September 2005 before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will not start anew, contrary to the wishes of the three defendants, it was learned from a judicial source on […]<\/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-18679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n