Editor,

I want to react to the story "Extradited Genocide suspect rejects defence counsel” (The New Times, July 15).

The suspect can only be given a choice of lawyers from those available on the Kigali Bar and are willing to defend him. And the courts should stop mollycoddling these genocide or terror suspects who seem bent on using every procedural rule, including the most frivolous tactics, to delay justice from taking its course.

Notwithstanding the need to afford the suspects all opportunities to ensure the best defence within reasonable limits, victims and survivors have already waited too long for justice to be rendered the courts should do everything in their power to expedite these cases.

These suspects have already milked the justice systems in the countries from which they were extradited for all they could bear in order to avoid extradition to face trial for the extremely heavy crimes they are suspected of.

 We should not allow them to run out the clock until their death from old age deprives their fellow Rwandans of the necessary closure the conclusion of their trials would afford all of us, whether they are convicted or found not guilty of the charges against them.

Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda