About 1,200 potential jurors will be vetted in Ottawa next week, ahead of the trial of Jacques Mungwarere, accused of Genocide crimes.The 39-year- old is the second Rwandan to be prosecuted under Canadas Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which allows for the prosecution of war crimes no matter, where or when they were committed. The first, Desire Munyaneza, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009.The RCMP arrested Mungwarere in 2009 in Windsor, Ont., and charged him in connection with the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, when over 1 million people were slaughtered during a 100-day period.Mungwareres case is relatively unique among war crimes trials in that he has chosen to have his case heard before both a judge and a jury. War crimes cases are almost exclusively presided over by judges.Jury has to be bilingual.The selection of the 12 jurors is expected to be difficult, however, because they must be bilingual and must also be ready to sit through a trial that could run nine months.Mungwarere, a former schoolteacher, is alleged to have led or participated in mass killings of civilians, including notorious massacres in two churches and a hospital in Kibuye.He was tracked beginning in early 2003, after being recognised by a childhood friend from Rwanda on a city bus in Windsor, where he settled after immigrating to Canada in 1998.Canadas war crimes law was first introduced in 2000.
