ICTR clears the air on assignment of counsel

A temporary moratorium recently imposed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on the appointment of defence lawyers from Canada and France is meant “to achieve a better geographic balance and better representation of the principal legal systems of the world”, according to the Arusha-based ICTR. In a position paper released yesterday, the ICTR noted that nearly half of the counsels it had appointed thus far to defend indigent accused came from Canada and France. The paper came in response to “a misinformation campaign against the ICTR” which “has created many misconceptions about the Tribunal’s policy and the state of the law,” the ICTR statement said.

It said that contrary to reports in some media alleging that the moratorium was implemented so as to hire African lawyers, practically all the counsel assigned to indigent accused persons since its imposition had been non-Africans, mainly from Belgium, Italy and the United States. The paper also noted that, by international law, it was up to the Tribunal to choose defence lawyers for accused persons who were indigent.

Detainee Jean-Paul Akayesu, who was assigned a French-speaking Italian lawyer as defence counsel on 9 February, has insisted on being represented by a Canadian for his appeal. Akayesu, the paper said, had asked the Canadian lawyer to represent him free of charge but had not received a response from the attorney.