ICTR: Captain Nizeyimana asks for AcquittalCaptain Ildephonse Nizeyimana, sentenced to life in jail for the murder of the last queen of Rwanda, on Monday protested his innocence before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). On June 19, 2012, the trial court found Nizeyimana guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for murders committed mainly in April 1994 in and around the southern Rwandan town of Butare. According to the judgment, he ordered the murder of Queen Rosalie Gicanda, widow of the last-but-one king of Rwanda, Charles Léon-Pierre Mutara III Rudahigwa.
ICTR: Ex-Minister claims he had No Influence in his native regionThe following day, Tuesday, it was the turn of former Youth Minister Callixte Nzabonimana, also sentenced to life, to protest his innocence before the ICTR Appeals Chamber. According to the trial court judgment, he was one of the main instigators of the genocide in his native prefecture of Gitarama, central Rwanda. He told the Appeals judges he was not at all influential in this prefecture.
ICC Witness on Hunger StrikeA Congolese politician who testified before the International Criminal Court (ICC) has gone on hunger strike. His lawyers said Wednesday that this was in support of his asylum request in The Netherlands. Floribert Njabu refused, after testifying in 2011, to return to Kinshasa. He says he fears reprisals from the government of President Joseph Kabila. Since his arrival in The Hague, he has been “accommodated” in the ICC Detention Facility.
African Chambers: Hissène Habré must appear Without HeaddressFormer Chadian President Hissène Habré, who stands accused before the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) must henceforth appear “without a headdress and with his face visible”, according to a decision on Tuesday by the Prosecution Chamber. This decision overturns a previous one by the Investigating Chamber, which authorized the former leader to wear his turban before the Court, despite the protests of prosecutor Mbacké Fall.
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