Munyeshaka case to be closed by 2014-report

After many years of working on the case of genocide suspect Wenceslas Muhyeshyaka’s case is expected to be done by 2012 according to an initial report submitted by Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT).

The report also says that Munyeshaka’s case was making steady progress in this case and that the judicial investigation would soon enter its final phase.

The report was submitted this August and was compiled by Laetitia Husson, the Officer in Charge of the Initial Monitoring Mission in the Munyeshyaka Case for the MICT.

The report states that those consulted on the case proceeding, like Jean Quintard, Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris, asserted that the judicial investigation in this case could be closed at the end of 2014.

Quintard and his colleagues who carried out the investigation on the case, reported a number of problems faced by the French authorities in this case in the first few years after the referral ordered by the ICTR.

They explained that the severance of diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda between November 2006 and November 2009 made it impossible to carry out investigations during that period and added that the evidence gathered by the ICTR Prosecutor could not be used as such in French law,

The teams also said that witnesses had to be heard again and had problems of physically reaching the scene and examining witnesses scattered around the world, but also noted that they had to go through lengthy procedures to be able to access information in the possession of the ICTR.

The public prosecutors insisted that the Munyeshyaka case, with the case of Laurent Bucyibaruta referred by the ICTR in2007 and two Rwandan cases where the indictees were remanded in custody, is one of the Unit’s top priorities.