ICTR

“Counsel Degli has committed acts of dishonesty, fraud and deception. These serious breaches of professional ethics justify his withdrawal from the case.” This was the unequivocal tone of the decision taken on 27 October by the administration of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to dismiss the lawyer representing General Gratien Kabiligi. The radical decision was taken following an ICTY enquiry, which on the face of it looks extremely damaging for the Togolese lawyer. 

Against the backdrop of preparations for Rwanda's twentieth commemoration of the 1994 genocide, the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has severed the case of former chief of staff of the Rwandan army, General Augustin Bizimungu, just before acquitting two other high-ranking military officers and reducing the sentence of a fourth defendant.

To date, international tribunals have provided little clarity on life after conviction. Barbora Hola and Joris van Wijk, criminologists at the Center for International Criminal Justice at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, are running the research project “When Justice is Done”(*). They have been looking into the situations of more than 100 prisoners convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).

Léon Mugesera’s defence lawyer, Félix Rudakemwa, has been fined for “delaying tactics” by the High Court in Kigali, which is trying the academic extradited to Rwanda from Canada in 2012, says the Hirondelle News Agency. His trial has experienced numerous delays since it started, in January 2013. 

After many postponements, the trial of Pentecostal Pastor Jean Uwinkindi – the first accused to be handed over to Kigali by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) – is now set to begin on 14 May. The long delays have brought into focus the many challenges in bringing transferred cases before Rwandan courts. 

One of the direct consequences of the establishment of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), established to carry out the remaining tasks of the two ad hoc tribunals after their closure, is that those convicted in Arusha can now apply for early release after completing two-thirds of their sentence, just like those convicted in The Hague [IJT-158]. Previously, they had first to complete three-quarters of their jail term.

Former chief of staff of the Rwandan army, major general Augustin Bizimungu “knew or had reason to know” but did not act. Confounding predictions that he could be acquitted [IJT-156], the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) appeals chamber upheld, on 30 June, Bizimungu’s responsibility as a superior for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by soldiers in Kigali and two rural provinces in 1994.

Unlike those acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) who have been welcomed home as heroes, Rwandans cleared by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) are leery of returning home. Without travel documents or nations willing to host them, eight remain in limbo in Arusha, the seat of the ICTR. To date, the tribunal has secured new countries of residence for just six of the 14 acquitted so far.