ICTR Transfer of cases to Rwanda

ICTR halts Munyakazi transfer from Arusha to Rwanda

BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha

The request by prosecution team for the transfer to Rwanda of genocide suspect Yusuf Munyakazi has today been turned down by the ICTR.

In a judgment document released to the media today, the chamber of three judges namely Ines M. Weinberg, Lee Gacuiga Muthoga and Robert Fremr; they noted that they are not satisfied with the competence of Rwanda’s judicial system.

In September 2007, prosecution had requested court to transfer Munyakazi to Rwanda
The prosecutor has discretion to select cases for possible transfer for jurisdiction in other national judicial systems and Munyakazi’s case would have been the first to be transferred to Rwanda.

The judges said that Rwanda had satisfied the requirements of the tribunal in regard to enacting transfer laws and abolishing the death penalty, the later was replaced by life imprisonment.
Rwanda abolished the death penalty in July 2007, while the transfer laws were enacted in March 2007.

Munyakazi is charged for genocide, or alternatively, with complicity in genocide, and extermination as a crime against humanity. He is reported to have committed the crimes in Cyangugu and Kibuye prefectures.

However, in their judgment, the judges said that Rwanda lacked sufficient guarantees for Munyakazi to face a fair trial in the country where as a wealthy businessman, commercial farmer and leader of the Bugarama Interahamwe, he is accused to have delivered weapons, uniforms and other logistics to the Interahamwe and instigated trhe killing of Tutsis at Kabusunzu. He is alos accused to have helped in the murder of TRutsis that had sought refugee in Cyangugu cathedral, and in three parishes in Bisesero.

The chamber of judges also stated that they were concerned that Rwanda would confine Munyakazi under solitary confinement which according to them is; “”an undesirable penalty.” They also added that Rwanda’s judiciary does not have the necessary independence from “outside pressure” to pass a fair judgment to Munyakazi.

The document signed by the three judges also mentions Rwanda’s condemnation of the arrest warrants issued by two European judges against Rwanda Patriotic Forces official as an example of the government’s non cooperative attitude towards the International Criminal Tribunal fro Rwanda.



The documents notes in part that; Rwanda is willing and adequately prepared to accept Munyakazi’s case but the system of one judge hearing such cases as that of Munyakazi was inadequate.
In the past the ICTR has transferred trails of Rwanda Genocide suspects to France from Arusha, the most famous being @@@@