Rwanda/USA: The strange case of Peter Erlinder

The Twin Cities lawyer, a champion of unsavory people and unpopular causes, sits in a Rwandan jail, accused of conspiring to deny that nation's 1994 genocide.

By KEVIN DIAZ, RANDY FURST and JEREMY HERB
Star Tribune staff writers
June 1, 2010

WASHINGTON

David Joles, Photo courtesy Erlinder family. A family photo of Peter Erlinder taken in Tanzania. Erlinder was interrogated by Rwandan authorities again Tuesday after being released from a hospital and is expected to appear before a Rwandan judge Wednesday.

The clients of Peter Erlinder do not generally win popularity contests. From accused cop killers and sex offenders to a suspected Al-Qaida associate, the Twin Cities attorney has spent a career brashly representing outcasts who stir deep public animosities. No apologies given.

Now the 62-year-old William Mitchell law professor sits in a Rwandan jail, accused by the government there of being in league with those who would deny the Rwandan genocide.

"We understand that human rights activists schooled in the U.S. Bill of Rights may find this objectionable," said Rwandan government spokesman Louise Mushikiwabo. "But for Rwandans -- schooled in the tragedy of the 1994 genocide -- Mr. Erlinder's arrest is an act of justice."

Masako Usui, Erlinder's wife

David Joles, Star Tribune

On Wednesday, Erlinder's relatives were headed to Washington to press for his freedom. Yet despite efforts by Minnesota's U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum to intercede with the State Department, the Obama administration has yet to call for Erlinder's release.

To those who know him, the case that took Erlinder to Rwanda is of a piece with the work he has done for decades on behalf of unpopular defendants, many of whom see themselves as political prisoners.

"It was almost a joke in school," said his daughter Sarah Erlinder, an attorney in Flagstaff, Ariz. "What does your father do? Oh, he represents cop killers and sex offenders. Now it's war criminals."

Over the years, Erlinder has defended American Indian fishing rights activists and championed war protesters and civil liberties activists. His law school job gives him the freedom to pursue his passion, frequently pro bono, for clients who are often indigent.

Along the way, he's also taken on less savory cases: Minnesota sex offender James Poole, a physician convicted of assaulting 11 patients; Minneapolis cop killer A.C. Ford, a reputed gang member; and Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a Canadian citizen who aided Al-Qaida.