ICTR investigator pleads “not guilty”

Simeon Nshamihigo, who had been working as an investigator with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for over two years under an assumed name, pleaded “not guilty” on Friday to three counts of genocide and crimes against humanity in his initial appearance before the ICTR, according to an ICTR press release. Nshamihigo is alleged to have been responsible for planning, instigating, ordering, committing or otherwise aiding and abetting the killings of Tutsi in Cyangugu prefecture. Nshamihigo, a former deputy prosecutor in Cyangugu prefecture and secretary for the Coalition pour la Defence de la Republique (CDR) in Cyangugu prefecture in 1994, was arrested in Arusha, Tanzania on 19 May 2001 and transferred to the ICTR’s detention facility on 25 May. The arrest came after the Rwandan government complained in March that some investigators working for defence teams at the ICTR were themselves genocide fugitives. Nshamihigo’s name appears on Rwanda’s primary list of top genocide suspects alleged to have masterminded the 1994 genocide that left an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. The ICTR has maintained that it does screen defence investigators, who are hired under contract by defence lawyers with the approval of the Tribunal. It says security screening considers but does not depend on the Rwandan government’s list of suspects. Nshamihigo was an investigator for the defence team of Samuel Imanishimwe, the former commander of Cyangugu military barracks in southwestern Rwanda whose genocide trial is currently before the Tribunal.