Rwanda ready to support genocide trials

RWANDA intends to send witnesses to Canada to testify against genocide suspect, Jacques Mungwarere, if the court there requests them, a source from the Rwandan Judiciary told The New Times yesterday.“There are witnesses against Mungwarere whom Rwanda would send to Canada but there is also an option of using a video conferencing for the witnesses to testify,” the source said. “In this case Canadian legal experts would be required to jet in to screen the witness while their technicians would come to connect the video link,” a source said without specifying the exact period the expert would come to Rwanda.Mungwarere, 39, is alleged to have facilitated the massacre of 2000 Tutsis in 1994, in the then Kibuye Prefecture, now in the Western Province.His trial began on Monday in Canada where he pleaded not guilty.Mungwarere who was arrested late last year by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) after a tip-off by a citizen, is the second genocide suspect to be charged on Canadian soil.The first, Désiré Munyaneza, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009, with no chance of parole for 25 yearsHe claimed asylum in Canada in 2001 and was granted refugee status in 2002.A former school teacher, Mungwarere was arrested in his home in Windsor, Ontario, following a tip off from Rwandan authorities.Witnesses are expected to describe how he shot two children in the head.Genocide suspect Leon Mugesera was also deported by Canada to Kigali in January after a long legal battle.

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Rwanda ready to support genocide trials