Arusha, 5 September 2007 (FH) - The former prefect of Kigali during the 1994 genocide, Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will call Thursday his last defence witness, it was learned Wednesday from his main counsel.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nFran\u00e7ois Cantier (France) indicated to the Hirondelle agency that witness TOA, thus designated to protect his identity, will testify as of Thursday morning. According to predictions of the chamber, the testimony of TOA, the 27th witness of Renzaho's defence, should also finish on Thursday.
\n\u00a0
\nThis hearing will be followed by a "status conference" during which, the chamber, after having consulted the parties, will schedule a date for the closing arguments.
\n\u00a0
\nTOA, a material witness, is awaited at the stand after the French historian, Bernard Lugan, who testified as an expert. Before the French specialist, the chamber had heard the defendant who also testified for his own defence.
\n\u00a0
\nRenzaho, who has pled not guilty, is charged with crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is, in particular, accused of having helped and encouraged massacres of Tutsis in 1994 in Kigali.
\n\u00a0
\nAccording to the indictment, he would have benefited, for certain massacres, from the complicity of a catholic priest exiled in France, Abbot Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, also indicted by the ICTR.
\n\u00a0
\nAt the time of his testimony, the former prefect declared that the clergyman had "done admirable things" by bringing food to Tutsis who had taken refuge in several buildings belonging to the Catholic Church in the capital.
\n\u00a0
\nThe trial of Colonel Renzaho began on 8 January.
\n\u00a0
\nER\/PB\/MM <\/p>\n
\u00a9 Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, 5 September 2007 (FH) - The former prefect of Kigali during the 1994 genocide, Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will call Thursday his last defence witness, it was learned Wednesday from his main counsel.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/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-19073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n