The ex-minister, who is on trial for almost a year now, has pleaded not guilty.
She is also accused of holding meetings to plan and organize genocide in Nyanza and Kibuye, in her native prefecture. She allegedly also participated in campaigns to distribute weapons.
“As the trial is at the prosecution stage, the court must go and seat at the place where the crimes took place’’, explained to the Hirondelle Agency the prosecutor, Emmanuel Nsengiyumva.
The court initially went to Nyanza to hear witnesses there. It currently sits in Muhanga, in the former prefecture of Gitarama. It will later move to Kibuye, according to Nsengiyumva.
“The absence of my lawyers means deniel of my right to cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses. With the aim of benefiting from a fair trial, I ask the court to defer the trial until further notice”, pleaded Ntamabyariro during Wednesday’s hearing.
The Chamber considered the accused’s request and deferred the hearing to 30 June.
The former minister is the only member of the interim government in power during the genocide to be tried by a Rwandan court.
The ex-justice boss was arrested in Zambia in 1997, where she had been in exile.
SRE/PB/MM/SC