The United Nations tribunal trying key suspects implicated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda on Monday transferred the case of Aloys Ndimbati, a former Rwandan local government official charged with crimes against humanity, to authorities in his home country.
According to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Ndimbati, who was the mayor of the Gisovu commune from 1990 until the end of July 1994, is still at large. He has been charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, as well as with murder, extermination, rape and persecution as crimes against humanity.
It is alleged that Mr. Ndimbati, along with others, was involved in the planning and execution of systematic attacks against the Tutsi civilian population in the Gisovu commune during the Rwandan genocide.
In its ruling Monday, the ICTR Referral Chamber ordered the case of Ndimbati be referred to the authorities of Rwanda, who will in turn refer his case to the High Court of Rwanda. Incidentally, Ndimbati's case is the seventh case to be transferred to Rwanda by the ICTR.
The Referral Chamber also expressed hope that Rwanda "will put into practice the commitments it has made about its good faith, capacity, and willingness to enforce the highest standards of international justice."
The referral chamber has already transferred the cases of Jean Uwinkindi and Bernard Munyagishari as well as those of fugitives Fulgence Kayishema, Charles Sikuwabo, Ladislas Ntaganzwa, and Ryandikayo to the Rwandan authorities.
The ICTR, based in the city of Arusha in northern Tanzania, was established in 1997 to try the most high profile of the Rwandan genocide cases. To date, the tribunal has convicted nearly 30 people and acquitted five.
It is estimated that the Hutu militia slaughtered some 800,000 Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus in 100 days during the 1994 genocide, prompted by the assassination of then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. The killings were finally halted after Tutsi-led militias supporting Rwandan President Paul Kagame ousted the then-ruling Hutu government, which supported the massacre.
by RTT Staff Writer
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