ICTR judges to visit over Ntawukuriryayo case

Judges from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), will next month take a field visit to sites where former deputy governor (Sous Prefet) Dominique Ntawukulilyayo, allegedly committed Genocide crimes. Ntawukuriryayo, is charged with Genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide in Gisagara, Southern Province where he was working. According to the ICTR calendar, trial chamber III, which presides over the case, will be in the country between April 25 and 29 to visit the sites. The closing arguments in Ntawukuriryayo’s case will then be heard in June this year. At the beginning of the defendant’s trial last year, Prosecutor Ibukunolu Babajide affirmed that Ntawukuriryayo was “a true merchant of death”. Prosecution added that Ntawukuriryayo, and others, planned the genocide in the five communes that constituted Gisagara. According to Babajide, the accused led his Tutsi employees to a trap of militias, promising them food and protection.“When they gathered there, he ordered their death. He did not stop ordering to seek and kill Tutsis until the fall of the regime,” Babajide said. The prosecution concluded its case on May 26, 2009 after fielding a total of 12 witnesses, whereas the defence rested its case on December 18, after presenting of 23 witnesses, including the accused himself. The former Sous Prefet was arrested in 2007 in Carcassonne, South-western France, on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the ICTR and thereafter transferred to Arusha in 2008. Ends

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ICTR judges to visit over Ntawukuriryayo case