Former ruling party big shots to have separate trial
By Hirondelle News Agency
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has ordered that the trial
of three leaders of the former ruling party be separated from that of a Hutu
politician from an opposition party.
The decision passed Monday granted a motion filed by the prosecutor in December
to amend the indictment and have two separate trials.
One indictment will group together the former president of the Mouvement
Republicain National pour la Democratie et le Developpement (MRND), Mathieu
Ngirumpatse, its vice-president, Edouard Karemera, and Joseph Nzirorera, the
Secretary General of the party and interim speaker of the transitional assembly.
The other indictment will be for former minister of primary and secondary
education in the Rwandan interim government, Andre Rwamakuba, who was a member
of the opposition Mouvement Democratique Republicain (MDR).
The MRND was dissolved by the Rwandan judiciary in 2001 and the MDR just before
the general elections of 2003.
The tribunal gave the go-ahead to separate the trial after making sure that the
Prosecutor would not gain technical advantage.
"The requested severance is in the interests of justice, ensuring a fair trial
without undue delay to the Accused", read the decision. No date has yet been
fixed for the new trials.
During the trial of the former leaders of the MRND, the prosecutor would like to
focus on the crime of conspiracy to commit genocide, within the ruling party.
Problems with the trial emerged on May 16, 2004 after the prosecutor had already
called 11 witnesses.
The presiding judge in the trial, Judge Andresia Vaz of Senegal, had been
accused by the defence of impartiality because she had accommodated a member of
the prosecution team in her house. She was forced to withdraw from the case and
the trial adjourned sine die.
On May 24, the two remaining judges ordered that the trial continue with the
appointment of a new judge.
But the defence appealed the decision and on September 28, the Appeals Chamber
ordered the trial to start from scratch.
The prosecution then changed its strategy in December and requested for two
separate trials, one for former MRND leaders, and the other for Andre Rwamakuba,
who saw the withdrawal of the rape charges from his indictment.
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