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My condolences to the Grand Inquisitor...
On 9 Jun 01, at 3:14, Rick Rozoff wrote:
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> http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?f=/stories/20010608/586108.html
>
>
> June 8, 2001
>
>
> UN team blasted over Rwandan verdict
> War crimes chief says prosecutors handled case badly
> as suspect acquitted
>
>
> Steven Edwards
> National Post
> UNITED NATIONS - The UN's chief war crimes prosecutor
> criticized her own team as incompetent yesterday after
> a Rwandan genocide suspect was acquitted of
> involvement in the massacres.
>
> Carla Del Ponte said through her spokeswoman she was
> confident her office had gathered sufficient evidence
> to convict Ignace Bagilishema, a former Rwanda mayor
> charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war
> crimes during the 1994 mass slaughter of Tutsis in the
> central African country.
>
> But she felt it had been presented badly, leading to a
> majority decision by the three judges who sit in lieu
> of a jury to acquit him on all seven counts.
>
> Mrs. Del Ponte said the loss of the case justified her
> moves to purge her office of prosecutors she considers
> weak.
>
> Mr. Bagilishema, 46, who has spent two years and five
> months in jail, did not walk free, however. The judges
> granted the prosecution's request to retain him in
> custody pending the outcome of an appeal.
>
> Jane Adong, the lead prosecutor in the case, is among
> seven prosecutors who, according to private documents
> uncovered by the National Post last month, are being
> released as their contracts expire.
>
> Sources say Ms. Adong, who is from Tanzania, is
> fighting Mrs. Del Ponte's bid to oust her.
>
> The trial of Mr. Bagilishema took placed in Arusha,
> Tanzania, seat of the International Criminal Tribunal
> for Rwanda (ICTR), which the UN created to prosecute
> the architects of the genocide. Eight have so far been
> convicted, and about 40 remain to be tried.
> Yesterday's ruling was the first "not guilty" verdict.
>
> "We are confident of the evidence we have," said
> Florence Hartmann on behalf of Mrs. Del Ponte
> yesterday. "But we know it was presented badly in
> court. Mrs. Del Ponte is aware that the evidence was
> not presented by the trial teams as well as it could
> have been.
>
> "As you know, the contract of the senior trial
> attorney was not renewed. The prosecutor has said on
> many occasions that some of the prosecutors are weak,
> and she has taken steps to correct this."
>
> Mrs. Del Ponte succeeded Louise Arbour, a justice with
> the Supreme Court of Canada, in 1999 as chief
> prosecutor of the ICTR and the International Criminal
> Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
>
> In a 341-page judgment for Mr. Bagilishema, the
> presiding judge, Judge Erik Mose of Norway, writes of
> the "paucity" of the prosecution evidence and
> describes prosecution witnesses as contradictory and
> unreliable.
>
> The prosecution had argued that as mayor of Mabanza in
> western Rwanda in 1994, Mr. Bagilishema was directly
> involved in the genocide and was responsible for acts
> of his subordinates.
>
> The surrounding area saw 45,000 killed -- 22,000
> Tutsis died at a Catholic church and football stadium
> alone. At least 800,000 died nationally during a
> three-month orgy of violence.
>
> Prosecution witnesses failed to place Mr. Bagilishema
> at the scene of several of the massacres, the judges
> found.
>
> The judges ruled Mr. Bagilishema should remain in
> custody despite a claim by his lawyer, François Roux,
> that "freedom is the norm, detention is the exception"
> while a case is under appeal.
>
> Mr. Bagilishema showed little emotion as he learned
> the judges had acquitted him unanimously on three
> charges and by majority on the others.
>
> Judge Mehmet Guney, of Turkey, found there had been
> sufficient evidence to convict Mr. Bagilishema on
> complicity in genocide and three charges of crimes
> against humanity.
>
>
>
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