Prosecution seeks joint trial for eight former politicians

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Wednesday asked the court to approve a joint trial for eight ex-ministers accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported. The former ministers are: Edouard Karemera (Interior), Andre Rwamakuba (Education), Casimir Bizimungu (Health), Justin Mugenzi (Commerce), Jerome Bicamumpaka (Foreign Affairs), Prosper Mugiraneza (Civil Service), Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda (Culture and Higher Education) and Eliezer Niyitegeka (Information). A prosecutor, Ken Fleming, told the court that such a trial would be in the “interests of justice as all the accused had been involved in a single criminal enterprise”. He said it would also reduce the number of witnesses that would have to be brought to court, and that it would speed up trial proceedings. Defence lawyers, for their part, argued that the motion was not founded in law, that it was “full of errors and inconsistencies”, and that in any case, there was no space in any of the ICTR’s small courtrooms for such a big trial.