26.10.11 - RWANDA/DENMARK - GENOCIDE CHARGES DISMISSED IN MBARUSHIMANA'S CASE

26 October 2011 By

Arusha, October 26, 2011 (FH) - A Copenhagen appeals court ruled Monday that Denmark's law on genocide could not be used to prosecute Rwandan citizen Emmanuel Mbarushimana and dismissed part of the case, the accused staying on remand on the subsidiary charge of murder.

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According to AFP, the appeals court stated that "the wording of the (1955) law does not provide a basis to assume that the intention was to give the law extraterritorial jurisdiction".

The decision confirmed a ruling issued on May 31 in first instance by a lower court in Roskilde, near Copenhagen, to the effect that there was "no legal basis in Denmark to prosecute foreigners charged with genocide in another country".

Mbarushimana, 49, was arrested in December 2010 in Roskilde where he had been living in exile under a false name since 2001. He is charged with participating in killings during the 1994 genocide. He was handed a life sentence in absentia in Rwanda in 2008.

No date has yet been set for the murder trial.