\nArusha, March 11, 2010 (FH) - Canadian lawyer John Philpot will defend genocide-accused former senior army officer Ildephonse Nizeyimana before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).\n<\/p>\n
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\nThis will be Philpot's third case before the ICTR. He was lead counsel for Jean-Paul Akayesu, former mayor of Taba, who was convicted to life imprisonment in 1998 and his appeal dismissed in 2001.\n<\/p>\n
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\nHe then successfully defended Protais Zigiranyirazo, known as "Mr.Z"., a brother in law of former Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana.\n<\/p>\n
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\nCharged with genocide, "Mr. Z" was sentenced to 20 years in jail by the lower court but acquitted on appeal on November 16, 2009.\n<\/p>\n
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\nIldephonse Nizeyimana is notably prosecuted for killing Tutsis, including Rosalie Gicanda, the widow of the next to last king of Rwanda, Mutara III Rudahigwa.\n<\/p>\n
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\nThe indictment further alleges that Nizeyimana participated in drawing up lists of Tutsi intellectuals to be killed, and highlights that the Captain was "a member of President Habyarimana‘s inner circle".\n<\/p>\n
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\nIt goes on charging Nizeyimana with letting his men rape Tutsi girls and women, as part of a genocidal project. The ICTR is the first international court to have adopted a jurisprudence positing that rapes can be constituent elements of a collective plan to eliminate in part or in whole a racial or ethnic group.\n<\/p>\n
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\nAccording to the amended indictment, Nizeyimana "was viewed by the soldiers at ESO, as well as the Interahamwe and other militia in Butare prefecture as being a leader of those who held extremist anti-Tutsis views". It adds that "he exercised power, authority and influence amongst all soldiers, Interahamwe, other militia and armed civilians in the region beyond his de jure military rank".\n<\/p>\n
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\nNizeyimana pleads not guilty.\n<\/p>\n
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\nHe was second in command of the Noncommissioned Officers School (Ecole des sous-officiers, ESO) in the southern town of Butare at the time of the genocide.\n<\/p>\n
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\nHe was arrested in Kampala (Uganda) on October 5 and transferred to the UN Detention facility in Arusha (Tanzania).\n<\/p>\n
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\nNizeyimana, aged 46, told the court he was born in Mutura commune, in the prefecture of Gisenyi (northwest Rwanda).\n<\/p>\n
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\nHe ran a small business in Goma (eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC) before his arrest.\n<\/p>\n
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\nKnowing he was wanted by the ICTR, he frequently changed his identity. He entered Uganda under the false name of Hitimana Kabogo. Nizeyimana was on a list of ICTR's twelve most wanted fugitives.\n<\/p>\n
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\nHis trial is expected to start before mid-this year.\n<\/p>\n
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\nER\/GF\/SC\n<\/p>\n
\n© Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, March 11, 2010 (FH) - Canadian lawyer John Philpot will defend genocide-accused former senior army officer Ildephonse Nizeyimana before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).<\/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-22318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n