Uwinkindi’s bail appeal rejected

The High Court yesterday upheld a decision by the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court to remand Genocide Suspect Jean Uwinkindi for 30 days as he waits for his trial to begin in substance.

Monday, September 24, 2012
Jean Uwinkindi leaves court. The New Times / John Mbanda.

The High Court yesterday upheld a decision by the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court to remand Genocide Suspect Jean Uwinkindi for 30 days as he waits for his trial to begin in substance.Delivering the judgment, Judge Antoine Muhima said that Uwinkindi’s appeal application lacked genuine reasons he based on to seek bail.Uwinkindi had raised the issue of mistaken identity claiming that his name is Jean Uwinkindi not Jean-Bosco Uwinkindi."This was a typo-error, other details match exactly with what Uwinkindi gave the court, this is why the court rejects this appeal,” Muhima read.The judge also said he had no proof that Uwinkindi was detained in isolation by the time he was arrested in Uganda and at the ICTR.The former pastor with the Pentecostal Church in Bugesera District is accused of unleashing killers on thousands of Tutsi refugees, including members of his church, during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.Uwinkindi was arrested in June 2010 in Uganda and was later transferred to the UN Detention Facility in Arusha. He was transferred to Rwanda on April 19 and he is the first person to be transferred to Rwanda by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) under the UN tribunal’s completion strategy.