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The Prosecutor of the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Carla Del Ponte, asked the ICTR's Appeals Court on Wednesday to reject a motion by genocide suspect Laurent Semanza to have his arrest and detention declared illegal on the grounds that his rights were repeatedly violated, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported.
Del Ponte argued that procedural delays during Semanza's initial detention in Cameroon in 1996 were beyond the prosecution's control and that it had shown "due diligence" at all stages, Hirondelle stated. The defence team has said the facts of Semanza's case were "the same, similar or even identical" to that of genocide suspect Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, whom the
Appeals Court ordered released on procedural grounds last November. Del Ponte has already asked the court to review the Barayagwiza decision. "I have 800,000 to one million corpses crying out for justice and it is your task to decide what to do," Hirondelle quoted her as telling the court.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions