Rwanda backs down on referral
2007-08-14 21:14
Arusha - The International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda has asked that a landmark referral to a Dutch court of a key suspect in the 1994 genocide be cancelled, judicial officials said on Tuesday.
In an urgent request, the Arusha-based ICTR's chief prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow urged the court's judges to ask the Dutch authorities that Michel Bagaragaza be transferred back.
Jallow's request was filed after a recommendation by the Dutch ministry of justice, which argued the chances of the suspect ever facing trial in the Netherlands were slim.
On April 13, the ICTR had agreed to the referral of Bagaragaza's case to a court in the Netherlands, the first time it had approved such a transfer to a national court.
Bagaragaza, currently detained at the court's facilities in The Hague, surrendered in 2005 and pleaded not guilty to three genocide and related counts stemming from his alleged participation in the 1994 genocide.
The former head of Rwanda's national tea industry, he is accused of being directly involved in the massacre of hundreds of Tutsis and of having helped create, fund, train and arm the radical Hutu Interahamwe militia.
According to the United Nations, 800 000 people, mostly from the Tutsi minority, were slain in the 1994 genocide within a few weeks.