By Rwanda News Agency
May 24, 2010
Kigali: Defense lawyers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have accused the Prosecutor General and the local daily of mischaracterizing the facts of the Genocide case of their clients, RNA reports.
The attacks came from the defense lawyers who held a contested conference in Brussels on Saturday and Sunday themed ‘lessons from the defence at the Ad Hoc UN Tribunals and prospects for International Justice’. Fierce critics of such conferences describe them as a platform for the Genocide negationist lobby.
Last week, The New Times published follow-up articles with one in which Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga accused the ICTR lawyers to have “so badly deviated from their professional duties and turned into activists and advocates of Genocide denial”.
The Rwandan embassy in Brussels sent a protest note to the Belgian Foreign Ministry but was not given any reply.
Top on the list of speakers included American Prof. Peter Erlinder – the defense attorney to Col Theoneste Bagosoro, the alleged brain behind the Tutsi mass slaughter. The others are Genocide fugitives Charles Ndereyehe and Eugene Rwamucyo.
Others included Jean Paul Puts who is very active on internet social networks of genocide deniers and goes by the pseudonym 'Agacurama', according to the local daily.
"That this movement is now shamelessly inviting Genocide suspects who are indicted to join them in conferences, only serves to show how far they can go in the pursuit of their agenda," Ngoga was quoted as saying.
Now the organizing committee of the conference has fired back arguing that the conference was meant to benefit from the “right to freedom of speech and thought”.
In a statement, the adhoc committee says it expected the conference to be a non-disruptive exchange of ideas that would be subjected to public critique and historical and scientific evaluation, as the ideas exchanged.
They say the Prosecutor General Ngoga had “mischaracterized” Military I trail judgment of February 2008 in which court cleared Col Bagosora and the co-accused of role in the planning of the Tutsi mass slaughter.
The verdict which the ICTR prosecution has appealed against, also acquitted all the four defendants of “planning or conspiracy” to commit genocide or other crimes, either before or after April 6, 1994.
Other conference speakers were Beth Lyons, Ken Ogetto, John Philpot and Andre Tremblay.
Related Materials:
Law Conference Upholds Free Speech Rights: Rejects Rwanda Dictatorship’s Attempts to Censor Thought and Speech!
Criminal defense lawyers dispute Rwanda’s genocide history
Law Professor Peter Erlinder on Preventing the Falsification of History
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