The trial of Genocide suspect Jean Uwinkindi started in the High Court Special Chamber yesterday. Uwinkindi was transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), last year, to stand trial in Rwanda.

As the trial began, presiding judge Charles Gatwaza read the charges leveled against Uwinkindi, but the defence counsel lodged an objection. Prosecution accuses Uwinkindi of genocide and extermination as crimes against humanity.

However, the defence lawyers told court that extermination as a crime against humanity was not different from the genocide charge and requested the judges to only consider one charge of genocide.

"The actions that constitute the crime of genocide are similar to those in the crime of extermination which could be violating the principle of ne-bis-in-idem,” Jean Baptiste Niyibizi, one of the defence lawyers, told court.

The Principle of ne-bis-in-idem is a legal doctrine used in effect that no legal action can be instituted twice for the same cause of action.

"Prosecution also accuses my client of being an accomplice yet transfer agreements indicate that a suspect cannot be charged with that,” Niyibizi added.

However, prosecution challenged the defence, saying the charge of genocide is completely different from that of extermination considering that the laws also define them differently.

Article 114 defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such, whether in time of peace or in time of war while it defines crimes against humanity as acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.

"The two crimes are completely different and do not contradict the Principle of ne-bis-in-idem. Actually this principle indicates that, no one shall be tried twice for the same offence, meaning if a court has tried someone for a certain crime either convicted or acquitted, they shall not be tried for the same crime again. Uwinkindi has never been tried for any of these,” said Prosecutor Jean Bosco Mutangana.

The judge set February 12, as the date the court’s decision on defence plea which will determine when the hearing will resume.

During the Genocide, Uwinkindi was a businessman and Pentecostal pastor in the present-day Bugesera District. After the Genocide, he fled the country and was later arrested in Uganda in June, 2010, Uwinkindi is accused of spearheading killings in Kanzenze area in the former Kigali-Rural prefecture during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.