Arusha, 21 May 2007 (FH) - The judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) elected on Monday Judge Dennys Byron (St Kitts and Nevis) to preside over the Tribunal, according to official sources on Monday late afternoon in Arusha.
This election was reached in unanimity as was being made clear by a close advisor of the elected president. She added that the President would take up his functions on the following Monday 29 May. Judge Khalida Rachid Khan (Pakistan) was elected Vice-President.
Judge Eric Møse (Norway), who was President of the Tribunal since May 2003, could not be elected again due to two successive mandates.
Born on 4 July 1943, Judge Charles Michael Dennys Byron is a judge of the Tribunal since April 2003. Prior to his time at the ICTR he was President of the Supreme Court of the Eastern Caribbeans.
He was also President of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission, President of the Bencher Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and Chairman of the Commonwealth Judicial Distance Learning Committee (1999).
Judge Byron was in private practice throughout the Leeward Islands with chambers in the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Anguilla (1966-1982). He took part in several law conferences such as the conference of United States Government Roundtable II for Judicial Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean, Washington, D.C. (1996).
Judge Byron studied law at Cambridge University (1962-1966) and received an MA, L.L.B. [Cantab.]. He received the award of Knight Bachelor by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (2002).
PB/AT/NN
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