23.01.07 - ICTR/FRANCE - CONDEMNATION FOR DEFAMATION FOR CHARLES ONANA

Arusha, January 23 2007 (FH) - Charles Onana, author of a book entitled « The Secrets of International Justice » in which he criticizes the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was condemned last week for defamation before a French tribunal following a complaint filed by a French lawyer, a source close to the case has reported. The 17th chamber of the High Court of Paris has condemned Onana to pay one symbolic euro in damages plus a penalty of 1000€ and the payment of legal fees. In his book published in December 2005, the journalist from Cameroon included a series of emails presented as an exchange between the tribunal’s spokesman and the lawyer who was applying for the direction of the attorneys’ bureau, an agency in charge of the relationship between the attorneys and the ICTR.After this correspondence had spread on the internet triggering the protest of a union of ICTR staff members, the tribunal’s registrar had suspended the appointment and terminated the service of the spokesman Mr. Roland Amoussouga (Togo). Two persons have been filling in for him. This case is still examined by an administrative committee of the United Nations at their headquarters in New York; it should issue a decision shortly. After the complaint filed by the lawyer who has now quit the bar of Paris, the homicide bureau of Paris had conducted an investigation; it established that the series of emails had been tampered with and that the correspondence being released on the net had resulted from a complex multinational computer operation. The origin of this operation couldn’t be traced precisely due to a lack of cooperation of the countries involved. PB/ER/MG © Hirondelle News Agency