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The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday reversed its decision to release genocide suspect Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza on procedural grounds. "The appeals chamber decided today that Barayagwiza will stand trial for genocide and related charges brought against him," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. In its revised
decision, the appeals chamber still found that the accused's rights had been violated, but "on a considerably smaller scale than it had deemed" in its 3 November 1999 decision that had ordered his immediate release, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported. The appeals' judges ruled that the violation of Barayagwiza's rights should be taken into account at
the time of his judgement.
The ICTR prosecutor in February had applied for a review of the chamber's November decision, on the basis that she had "new facts". Among other things, the new facts clarified the period that Barayagwiza had been held without being informed of the charges against him and revealed factors that delayed his transfer to Arusha in 1997 following his 1996 arrest in
Cameroon, Hirondelle said.
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