04.02.07 - ICTR/RWAMAKUBA - ACQUITTED EX-MINISTER OBTAINS COMPENSATION

Arusha, February 3 2007 (FH) - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has given the Registrar the order to pay the ex-Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, André Rwamakuba, acquitted by the ICTR 2.000 USD as a compensation for not having provided him with a legal aid during the first months of his detention, a judicial source has reported on Friday.   It is the first time the Tribunal has ever issued such an order.   From October 22 1998 when the ex-minister arrived at the ICTR detention facilities to March 10 1999, he had remained without a lawyer.   This decision issued last Wednesday also specifies that the registrar has to apologize to Rwamakuba.   The judges eventually order him to use every possible means to find Rwamakuba a temporary status in the country of residence of his family so that his children can keep studying there, as Rwamakuba has required.     Rwamakuba’s wife and children are living in Switzerland. The acquitted, on the other hand, has been housed at the tribunal’s expense in Arusha, the small town where the ICTR is located, since he was released last September.   Rwamakuba was acquitted of charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.   The prosecutor has decided not to appeal.     The ex-minister and initially doctor, tried for massacres of Tutsis perpetrated in Gikomero, his native town near Kigali and at the Butare university hospital (south) had boycotted his own trial, alleging that the prosecutor’s indictment against him was unjust.   Even on the day of his acquittal, he did not appear before the court.   The judgment referred clearly to the right the ex-minister had to file a claim before the same chamber and be granted a compensation for having been deprived of his right to receive legal aid in the first months of his detention.   Rwamakuba has two housemates, one is the ex-minister André Ntagerura and the other is the ex-prefect Emmanuel Bagambiki, also acquitted by the ICTR.The tribunal keeps searching asylum countries for them.   ER/AT/MG © Hirondelle News Agency