Resources for Uwinkindi defense team available – Karugarama

The Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, has said that Jean Uwinkindi’s defence team has access to funds to conduct investigations and locate witnesses.Uwinkindi is the first detainee to be transferred to Rwanda by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and his case is monitored by a team assigned by the registry of the Tanzania-based tribunal.In his September report, ICTR monitor Anees Ahmed said he had been in regular contact with both parties (government and the defence lawyer), adding that the lead defence counsel Gatera Gashabana had raised concerns over funding.“First, we don’t conduct legal defence through the media. I expect every lawyer in the country to respect the laws. Also, legal aid has a process in which it is done and we guaranteed to pay for Uwinkindi’s defence,” said Karugarama.He however hastened to add that worldwide, every lawyer has to negotiate before taking on a case or there are standard tariffs.Ahmed’s report reads in part; “He (Gashabana) stated that the legal aid provided to him and his co-counsel only pertains to remuneration for the provision of services.”The report dated October 4, 2012 also adds that (the legal aid) does not permit the hiring of investigative personnel or to incur any travel or other expenses to allow the defence to identify potential witnesses, make contact with them, take their preliminary statements and ensure their availability before the court.”However, Karugarama refuted the claims saying that there are standards set by the Kigali Bar Association and that, “Gashabana should not hold the country at ransom. We agreed to pay according to the tariff or negotiate but not at the whim of the advocate”.The law relating to the transfer of the cases from ICTR and other countries indicates that the accused is “entitled to counsel... in case he has no means to pay, he/she shall be entitled to legal representation”.According to Karugarama, “the country has over 600 lawyers if one can’t accept the amount others can, the country is not limited to using one lawyer.”The New Times learnt that Gashabana, who had already taken on the case before negotiating, sought an inflated amount from the government which sparked the negotiations.However, when contacted, Gashabana could neither confirm that there were negotiations going on nor did he dismiss the allegations contained in the report by the monitor. “Issues to do with payments of a lawyer by his client are private, and for that matter, I cannot say whether it’s right or wrong. Any comment I make may jeopardize my ethics and my superiors wouldn’t be happy with that,” he said.Meanwhile, the president of Kigali Bar Association Athanase Rutabingwa refuted the claims saying that there are no issues and that if Gashabana had concerns regarding finances, he would have raised them with the Bar.“As far as we know, negotiations were conducted and an agreement was reached,” he said.He refrained from commenting about the tariffs saying that they are outdated and rarely referred to although information from the Ministry of Justice indicates that a lawyer is paid between Rwf 30,000 and Rwf 35,000 an hour.In his recent interview, the Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga, dismissed claims that the government could not be able to raise the amount Gashabana had requested. “The government knows very well its obligation of facilitating the defence in their work and any activity approved by the court will immediately be paid for. The issue of lack of funds should be ruled out,” he said.He added that Uwinkindi’s defence cannot initiate any activity without the authorisation of the court.“It’s the judge that has to authorise any of their activities and the government pays for it”.He, however, pointed out that the defence counsel never went through court to seek authorisation for what they intend to do.A referral Chamber of the ICTR ordered the case to be referred to Rwanda in June last year.The decision was confirmed on appeal in December 2011 and he was transferred to Rwanda for trial in April this year.Two ICTR staff members were subsequently appointed on an interim basis to monitor the referral cases, pending a final agreement with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights for monitoring.They are supposed to provide monthly reports to the president of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), a UN judicial body established to assume essential functions of the ICTR and of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after their closure.Uwinkindi was arrested in June 2010 in Uganda and was later transferred to the UN Detention Facility in Arusha, Tanzania.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.

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Resources for Uwinkindi defense team available – Karugarama