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Rwanda genocide tribunal transfers prisoners to Benin to serve sentences

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Wednesday announced the transfer of nine prisoners on Saturday to a detention facility in Benin. A May 18 order by ICTR President Sir Dennis Byron requested the transfer from the UN Detention Facility at Arusha, Tanzania to Beninese custody. The prisoners, including former Kigali-Rural governor Francios Karera, Catholic priest Athanase Seromba, and former lawmaker Aloys Simba, were sentenced by the tribunal to terms ranging from 11 years to life in prison. The ICTR, set to expire in 2010, was established to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, died. In May, Byron submitted a plan for the ICTR, which extends trial stages through 2009 and reserves the final year of the court's mandate for appellate orders and responses. In March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon pledged his ongoing support for the ICTR and stressed that the international community must continue to combat genocide.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 01, 2009 (boomark / email).