South African appointed deputy prosecutor of tribunal

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Carla Del Ponte, announced on Wednesday the appointment of South African lawyer Bongani Majola as deputy prosecutor of the UN court.

Majola, 50, arrived at the tribunal’s headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, on Monday and assumed his duties immediately. The position at the tribunal had been vacant since early 2001 when the contract for the then deputy chief prosecutor, Cameroonian Bernard Muna, expired and was not renewed.

Prior to this appointment, Majola was the head of the South African Legal Resources Centre, a position he had held for the last six years. He was previously professor and dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the North, in South Africa.

Del Ponte also announced that she had recommended the appointment of Melanie Gertrude Werret as tribunal’s director of prosecutions. Werret holds dual British and Zimbabwean nationality. She was the assistant chief Crown prosecutor in London.

The UN Security Council established the tribunal in 1995 to try the alleged perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Currently, there are 55 detainees in the tribunal's custody. Since its inception, it has handed down eight convictions and one acquittal.

The post of director of prosecutions has been vacant for more than two years, since the appointment Tanzanian Mohamed Othman in 2000 as the prosecutor-general for East Timor. Silvana Arbia, from Italy, has been acting chief of prosecutions.