Uwinkindi appears in court today

Genocide suspect, Jean Bosco Uwinkindi, who was transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) last week, will today make his initial appearance in court today.The Head of the Fugitive Tracking Unit, John Bosco Siboyintore, said the suspect would appear before the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court.Uwinkindi, a former pastor with the Pentecostal Church in Kanzenze, Bugesera in the former Kigali-Rural Prefecture, is accused of unleashing killers on thousands of Tutsi refugees, including members of his church, during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.According to a distinctive law concerning the transfer of Genocide suspects to Rwanda by ICTR, Uwinkindi is supposed to be tried in a specialised chamber of the High Court.“The same law also indicates that pre trial hearings are handled in a classical Rwandan system, but when the case goes to substance hearing, it will be handled by the special chamber,” Siboyintore explained.Uwinkindi is detained at the special transit facility at Kigali Central Prison, designated for suspects transferred from the ICTR or other international jurisdictions. The decision to transfer Uwinkindi to Rwanda was first made in June 2011 by the tribunal’s referral chamber, and later upheld by the appeals chamber, after giving the Rwandan judiciary a clean bill of health.Uwinkindi is charged with three counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.

National

Uwinkindi appears in court today