SECOND ARRESTED EX-MAYOR IN RWANDA TRIBUNAL CUSTODY

Arusha, June 26, 2001 (FH) - Former Rwandan mayor Jean Mpambara, arrested last Wednesday, is now in the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), pending investigations into his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, official sources confirmed. Mpambara, the former mayor of Rukara, was arrested in Mukungwa refugee camp in northern Tanzania, along with former mayor of Rusumo Sylvestre Gacumbitsi.

Rusumo and Rukara communes are in the eastern Rwandan region of Kibungo. "Mpambara was transferred to the detention facility on Saturday," ICTR spokesman Kingsley Moghalu told Hirondelle. Mpambara allegedly had a hand in the killings that took place in Rukara commune during the genocide. At the time of his arrest, the ICTR Prosecutor did not have an indictment for Mpambara ready, and therefore requested Tanzanian police to hold him in Kigoma, pending an order for provisional detention from the ICTR. The ICTR Statute provides for provisional detention of suspects under investigation, provided a judge is satisfied that this is warranted. The period of provisional detention is 30 days, but can be extended on request to a maximum of two more thirty-day periods. GG/JC/FH (MP0626e)

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