Lawyers representing Genocide suspect Charles Bandora were yesterday fined Rwf500,000 each for contempt of court and derailing proceedings.

Bruce Bikotwa and Bonniface Nizeyimana were not in court but had sent a letter asking for postponement of yesterday’s trial.  

The panel of judges, after about two hours of examining the case, ruled that the lawyers knew that their absence would cause the trial to stop because Bandora cannot defend himself. 

Announcing the ruling, presiding judge Athanase Bakuzakundi said: "The fact that they have sent a letter to the Minister for Justice is not reason of boycotting the hearing because they know that every request of theirs can be okayed or rejected,” Bakuzakundi said, adding that the lawyers were playing "delaying tactics.”

"Such attitudes are delaying tactics,”  he said.

Derailing the court processes attracts a fine of between Rwf200,000 and Rwf500,000.  

Paying fine

Court ordered the lawyers to pay the fine within 15 days. 

Nizeyimana told reporters that they have sent a letter [referred to by the judge] to the Minister for Justice seeking financial support. 

He added that their client, Bandora, has been paying them but has since run out of resources. 

"He (Bandora) has been paying us through personal avenues but he has run out of money,” Nizeyimana said without revealing the amount he says Bandora has so far paid them.

Bandora, who was extradited from Norway last year, is accused of having facilitated the Interahamwe militia in the mass killings of Tutsi in 1994 by training and arming militiamen and personally supervising massacres in the Bugesera region. 

In particular, Bandora is accused of having ordered the killing of 400 Tutsi who had sought refuge at Ruhuha church between April 7-13 1994.

He has denied all charges during the previous hearings. 

The court further ordered the two lawyers to attend the next hearing, scheduled for July 16.