Mr. Claver Sindayigaya filed a motion on Tuesday to prevent his client Jean Bosco Uwinkindi, a detainee at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused of planning and coordinating the 1994 genocide from being transferred to Rwanda.
The defence lawyer stated that the Rwandan court was not credible, because it had rejected crucial evidence in another trial in the same week. This was in reference to the trial of Victoire Ingabire in Kigali. She is accused of terrorism and denying the genocide ever happened.
On Monday, Ms Ingabire, an opposition leader boycotted her trial saying that a defense witness was cut short after having accused the Rwandan authorities of rigging the evidence against her.
Mr. C. Sindayigaya, the defense lawyer, argued that his client Jean Bosco Uwinkindi, just like Ms Ingabire would not get a fair hearing hence the decision to block the move against the transfer from the ICTR situated in Arusha, Tanzania to Rwanda.
According to the ICTR spokesman, Roland Ammoussouga, on Tuesday an urgent motion for a stay of the Uwinkindi transfer to Rwanda had been filed. In addition to this, they also wanted to request for more time to file a second motion for reconsideration of the December 16, 2011 ruling on appeal against the return to Rwanda.
The detainee, Jean Bosco Uwinkindi, was a pastor at a Pentecostal church in the rural area of Kanzenze in Kigali at the time of the genocide. He is accused of having been the leader of a Hutu extremist group and of having incited them to kill the Tutsi civilians.
Initially, the ICTR had ordered Mr. Uwinkindi to be transferred to Rwanda on April 18. This ruling has finally been carried out as the detainee was transferred to Rwanda on Friday. This is the ICTR’s first-ever transfer of a genocide suspect to a Kigali court.