ICCBanda trial set to start in November: In a notice issued Monday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) set the war crimes trial of Abdallah Banda for November 18. Banda is indicted for crimes committed in Darfur, western Sudan, in September 2007. His trial was initially set to start on May 5 this year, but was postponed on May 5 until further notice. The charges brought against Banda by the Prosecutor were confirmed on March 7, 2011. The judges deemed there to be enough evidence to try Abdallah Banda for criminal responsibility as co-perpetrator for three war crimes.
RWANDARwandan sent back from Denmark fires his lawyers: A Rwandan extradited to his country by Denmark on Monday fired his two lawyers, forcing the court to postpone his initial appearance. Emmanuel Mbarushimana claimed his two defence lawyers were incompetent and inexperienced. The judges said he could choose new lawyers before his next appearance on Tuesday. Mbarushimana, trained as a primary school teacher, is accused of having organized and participated in massacres of Tutsis in several places in the southern Butare prefecture of Rwanda in 1994.
RWANDAAppeals hearings end for ex-senator: Appeals hearings ended Monday for former Rwandan senator Anastase Nzirasanaho, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court for participation in the 1994 genocide. The Appeals Court set July 31 as the date when it would hand down its decision. According to the lower court judgment Anastase Nzirasanaho, a trained agricultural engineer, distributed weapons in 1994 which were used to kill Tutsis in his native Mataba, in the former prefecture of Ruhengeri (northern Rwanda). The former parliamentarian has always protested his innocence.
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