"Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum"

Ex-Kosovo premier acquitted at ICTY retrial


The former prime minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, has been once again acquitted of crimes against humanity. The retrial the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague backed up the court's original 2008 verdict.

Judges at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague ruled on Thursday that Haradinaj and two accomplices were not guilty of charges that they had murdered and tortured Serbs in the 1998-1999 war as members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

"On the contrary, the evidence establishes that, when he heard about the mistreatment of individuals, Haradinaj said no such thing should happen because this is damaging of our cause," said Bakone Justice Moloto, the presiding judge in the case.

Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimija had been acquitted of the charges at a previous trial in 2008. But that ruling was deemed invalid because of reports of witness intimidation.

Mixed reactions

While the decision was welcomed in Kosovo, where crowds cheered as fireworks went off overhead in the capital, Pristina, Serbians were disappointed by the decision.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said in a statement that the verdict proved the UN war crimes tribunal had only been "formed to try the Serbian people."

He added that the decision "annuls previous efforts toward the normalization" of relations between Serbia and Kosovo. Serbia does not, like much of the rest of the international community, recognize Kosovo's sovereignty. Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 2008.

mz/ipj (Reuters, AP, dpa)

Source: DW (29/11/2012): http://www.dw.de/ex-kosovo-premier-acquitted-at-icty-retrial/a-16415564

UGANDA: Court sentences man to 45 years in jail for defilement

By ISSA ALIGA


Masaka

The High Court in Masaka District has sentenced a 30-year-old man to 45 years in jail for defiling a three-year old-girl.

Lady Justice Oguli Ouma on Tuesday found that on September 24 2010, Robert Birakweta, a resident of Bamunakika Village in Lwengo Sub-county, Lwengo District, defiled his neighbour’s daughter at around 11am, when the victim’s mother had gone to the garden.

Birakweta lured a seven-year-old boy, who was taking care of the girl, and sent him to collect firewood.
When the boy returned, he found the victim baby crying. The matter was later reported to police and Birakweta was arrested and charged.

During the ruling, Justice Ouma said the girl was of a tender age who could not distinguish between what was right and wrong. Birakweta asked court for mercy, saying he had two wives and four children to take care of.
The same court also sentenced Emmanuel Tibyoruhanga, 30, to 40 years imprisonment for defiling a 16 year-old-girl and infecting her with HIV/Aids.

On September 19 2010, Tibyoruhanga, of Buwunga Sub-county defiled the girl yet he was HIV positive. Justice Ouma said the convict had violated the dignity of the girl which he was obliged to protect. Tibyoruhanga pleaded guilty, saying the girl looked older than her age.

Source: Daily Monitor (29/11/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Court-sentences-man-to-45-years-in-jail-for-defilement/-/688334/1632318/-/cf15vo/-/index.html

Nokia files suit to ban BlackBerry sales

Sung Un Kim at 11:55 AM ET


[JURIST] Nokia announced Wednesday that it filed litigation against Research In Motion (RIM) [corporate websites], the Canadian parent company of BlackBerry, in courts in the US, UK and Canada to block sales of BlackBerry smartphones. The move came after a Swedish arbitrator's decision that ruled in favor of the Finnish company in a breach of contract case. Nokia is seeking to enforce [Reuters report] the decision. The arbitrator held that the Canadian company, which uses Nokia's wireless local access network (WLAN) technologies in its BlackBerry smartphones, is obligated to pay royalties if it desires to continue to utilize the technologies at issue. Nokia and RIM entered into a license agreement covering cellular patents in 2003, but in 2011 RIM unsuccessfully sought to extend the license to WLAN patents in the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. Specific dates of when the courts will hear the cases are still unknown.

Litigation involving smartphone technologies have become more common throughout the globe. The most significant example is the battle between Samsung and Apple [corporate websites]. Earlier this month, a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] ruled that Apple and Samsung may each pursue additional patent infringement claims against the other, allowing each company to add devices brought to market after the original lawsuit was filed in February. In October the Dutch Rechtbank's-Gravenhage [official website] court ruled that Samsung did not infringe [JURIST report] on an Apple software patent. In the same month, a UK court also ruled that Samsung did not infringe [JURIST report] on an Apple design patent. In the same time frame Apple appealed [JURIST report] a Tokyo District Court ruling which dismissed the company's claim that Samsung had infringed on its patents. At the beginning of October, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] reversed an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung that prevented it from selling its Galaxy Nexus product. Earlier in August, Apple won a $1.05 billion judgment [JURIST report] in the Northern District of California against Samsung involving other patent infringements.

Source: JURIST (28/11/2012): http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/11/nokia-files-suit-to-ban-blackberry-sales.php

Egypt speeds new constitution amid Morsy protests


Cairo (CNN) -- The council charged with drafting Egypt's new constitution says it will vote on a final draft on Thursday, rushing to finish its work amid widespread protests against President Mohamed Morsy and a walkout by some members.

Fresh clashes broke out near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday, a day after a massive demonstration against Morsy's decrees that extended his powers last week. Dozens of police officers, backed by trucks firing tear gas, arrested numerous protesters, some of whom were beaten by officers as others continued to throw stones at police.

But Morsy showed no signs of backing away, telling the American magazine Time, "My chief responsibility is to maintain the national ship to go through this transitional period."

"What I can see now is, the Egyptians are free," he said. "They are raising their voices when they are opposing the president and when they are opposing what's going on. And this is very important. It's their right to express and to raise their voices and express their feelings and attitudes. But it's my responsibility. I see things more than they do."

Morsy issued an order November 22 preventing any court from overturning his decisions, essentially allowing him to run the country unchecked until a new constitution is drafted. In a surprise move after days of protests, the constituent assembly that has been drafting Egypt's new constitution said Wednesday it was on the verge of concluding its work.

Protesters to Morsy: Roll back your decree or leave

Essam El-Erian, a senior Morsy adviser, said the council is expected to vote on a final draft Thursday and put it before the Egyptian people for a vote within 15 days. If it passes in that referendum, the controversial decrees would be lifted.

But the move provoked a walkout by a number of the council members. Sameh Ashour, head of the lawyers' syndicate and a former member of the council, said that only 55 of the 100 original members of the assembly remained, and all of them were from Islamist movements such as the Salafists or the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsy's political movement.
"The Muslim Brotherhood are stealing the constitution," he said. "They are tailoring it according to their view after Coptic church representatives, civil movements, and revolutionary representatives withdrew."
Read more: Critics wonder if Morsy is Egypt's next strongman
El-Erian said only 22 members had quit, and the remaining ones would take their concerns into consideration when voting Thursday.

"Their brains and (all) their opinions are in the draft," he told CNN's "Amanpour." He denied the process was being rushed, saying the assembly had been at work for six months.

"All Egyptians are waiting for a new constitution reflecting the hopes of the people and dreams of Egyptians during the revolution and to end the suffering of Egyptians for more than 60 years under dictatorship and totalitarianism," he said.

But the move to swiftly ratify a new national charter drew a vehement reaction from one of the constitutional council's former members, Ayman Nour.

"This cannot happen," said Nour, a former presidential hopeful who quit the assembly earlier this year. "It would be the biggest treason in Egypt's history."

Morsy and his backers described last week's decree as an attempt to preserve the fragile Arab Spring revolution that pushed longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak from power and led to the country's first free elections. But critics have called it an unprecedented power grab, and a Monday night statement declaring the edict applied only to "sovereign matters" did nothing to defuse their anger.

Egyptians packed Tahrir Square past midnight Tuesday in what observers said were the biggest protests since Mubarak's ouster in 2011, calling on Morsy to reverse his decree or resign. While that demonstration was largely peaceful, one man died from inhaling tear gas during a fight between demonstrators and police nearby, and more than 400 people were injured in protests across Cairo and around the country.

Aly Hassan, a judicial analyst affiliated with the Ministry of Justice, said he was surprised at the move, since Morsy's decree gave the constituent assembly an extra two months to complete their work.

"This could be a way for him to get out of this debacle without reversing his decree and decisions," Hassan suggested.

Brookings Institution analyst H. A. Hellyer said the sudden push could be an attempt to take some of the heat off of Morsy, Egypt's first freely elected leader. Hellyer, who is currently in Cairo, considers that Morsy has "put himself in a tricky position" by issuing the edict because it has made it very difficult for him to compromise.

"I think his advisers are figuring out a way where he can climb down a little bit to defuse the situation without coming across as weak," he told CNN.

Despite critics' concerns over its drafting, the constitution would likely pass in a referendum because many Egyptians crave stability after months of uncertainty, he said. Islamist groups may also cast the decision in a religious light. But Hellyer said the huge numbers that turned out Tuesday -- a workday -- show that significant numbers of Egyptians from all backgrounds are unhappy over the president's assumption of new powers.

"If the protesters can keep up the momentum for another couple of days, they hit Friday, a day off. If they can do something quite intense on Friday, then that may push the presidency in an awkward position," Hellyer said.

It is also unclear whether Morsy would then give up his additional powers immediately, or whether he will keep hold of them until a parliament is formed, he said.

The Muslim Brotherhood has attempted to rally support for Morsy during the row. It dismissed Tuesday's protests and plans nationwide protests Saturday in support of the president and his decree, spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said Wednesday. The Brotherhood called off a planned "million man" protest Monday amid concerns over potential violence.

Meanwhile, Egypt's judges have responded to the decrees by shutting down courts around the country. All but seven of Egypt's 34 courts and 90% of its prosecutors went on strike Monday in protest, said Judge Mohamed al Zind of the Egyptian Judge's Club. He described Morsy's edict as "the most vicious ... attack on the judicial authority's independence."

Al Zind said Wednesday the Court of Cassation, the country's highest appeals court, had suspended its work until Morsy's decree is rescinded. He also announced that Sunday, the country's higher constitutional court would examine what he called the unconstitutional edict and would consider cases calling for the disbanding of the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament.

................................
CNN's Reza Sayah and journalists Ian Lee and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy in Cairo, Michael Pearson in Atlanta and Laura Smith-Spark in London contributed to this report.

Source: CNN (29/11/2012): http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/28/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Argentina tries pilots for crimes against humanity


A trial has begun in Buenos Aires aimed at rectifying crimes committed by the country's military dictatorship. The court is to probe a group of pilots and a naval school for torturing and killing political opponents.

The country's largest trial probing crimes committed during the military junta from 1976 to 1983 began on Wednesday in Argentina's capital city. The legal proceedings are to focus on two major cases of human rights abuses.

The breadth of charges and number of victims appeared to set a precedent in legal investigations into crimes committed by the military dictatorship more than three decades ago, according to a rights attorney speaking to the news agency AFP.

"[The trial] was, is and will be the largest trial of crimes against humanity," in Argentina, rights lawyer Rodolfo Yanzon told AFP.


The court began its questioning of cases that involved some 800 instances of human rights violations. Almost 70 suspects have been scheduled to be tried before the court.

Prosecutors have brought charges against a group of pilots who allegedly disposed of political opponents during so-called "death flights" over the Rio de la Plata - the large estuary that lies between Argentina and Uruguay.

Cases of torture at Argentina's ESMA Naval Mechanics School have also been incorporated into the trial. There, some 5,000 political prisoners were reportedly tortured and killed. Like many of the victims of the military junta, they "disappeared" from society.

As many as 900 witnesses are scheduled to testify in the 2-year trial.

An estimated 30,000 people died during Argentina's so-called "Dirty War." They were believed to have been kidnapped, tortured and killed by the military government.

kms/mr (AP, AFP, dpa, epd)

Source: DW (28/11/2012): http://www.dw.de/argentina-tries-pilots-for-crimes-against-humanity/a-16415030

UGANDA: Mutebile, Makubuya, Bbumba face charges

 ANDREW BAGALA


Kampala

Police have asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to sanction charges against Central Bank Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile over the Hassan Basajjabalaba compensation scandal. The police also want the DPP to prefer charges against the businessman, who received at least Shs142.6 billion in the contested transaction.

The DPP has also been asked to sanction charges of causing financial loss against former Finance minister Syda Bbumba and former Attorney General Prof. Khiddu Makubuya for their alleged role in approving the compensation.

Ms Grace Akullo, the director of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence, confirmed that they had re-submitted the files to the DPP for the fourth time. “It is true we have sent the files back to the DPP after we worked on the issues that the Director of Public Prosecutions had advised us to do,” Ms Akullo said.

Mr Basajjabalaba is under investigation in connection with a forged consent judgement that exempted his Haba Group of Companies from paying taxes on the Shs142b compensation claim. Ms Jane Kajuga, the spokesperson for the DPP’s office, should not confirm the status of the files when contacted by the Daily Monitor.

If the DPP sanctions the charges, the four officials would then be formally charged in court. 
Ms Bbumba and Prof. Makubuya resigned from Cabinet over the matter while it was under investigation by Parliament. The House exonerated Mr Mutebile, who had come under pressure from MPs to step down.
If the DPP sanctions the charges, it is likely to spark fresh calls for the Governor to reassess his position at the Central Bank.

Any charges are also likely to bring into the spotlight the constitutional guarantees of independence that the Central Bank enjoys and whether such a legal shield could shelter abuse in the institution, if proven.
The police investigation into the matter have been on since last year and detectives have thrice submitted the files to the DPP without getting approval to charge the officials.

An audit by the Office of the Auditor General found that the claims were without legal basis and massively inflated. The audit also found that government did not owe the businessman; instead it was the Mr Basajja’s companies that owed government more than Shs900 million in connection with the transactions.

Source: Daily Monitor (29/11/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Mutebile--Makubuya--Bbumba-face-charges/-/688334/1632366/-/pcxw2jz/-/index.html

Kosovo ex-PM Haradinaj to receive Hague verdict


A UN war crimes tribunal is due to deliver a verdict in the partial retrial of former Kosovan Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

Mr Haradinaj was acquitted in 2008 but the verdict was overturned on grounds of witness intimidation.

Prosecutors have called for a 20-year sentence over allegations that he directed atrocities against Serb, Albanian and Roma civilians in 1998.

The ex-Kosovo Liberation Army fighter is being tried with two co-accused.

Mr Haradinaj and Idriz Balaj were acquitted on 37 counts of war crimes in the earlier trial, and are being retried on some of those counts.

A second co-defendant, Lahi Brahimaj, was convicted in 2008 of torture and sentenced to six years, is now being retried on four counts.

The indictment against all three defendants alleged they had been involved in a joint criminal enterprise to establish KLA control in western Kosovo through detention camps.

Ethnic Serbs and Albanians who were deemed to have collaborated with Serbs were allegedly tortured and killed there, with 39 bodies found.

'KLA revenge'

Mr Haradinaj is the most senior ethnic Albanian indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

His supporters of Mr Haradinaj say the retrial was unfounded - and based on flimsy evidence.

While another acquittal is likely to spark anger in Belgrade, the BBC's Guy Delauney reports from the Serbian capital that a conviction would go some way to easing negative perceptions of the tribunal there.

Earlier this month there were protests in Belgrade after the UN tribunal acquitted two Croatian generals previously convicted of crimes against their country's Serb minority.

"Here in Serbia it's very important to accept that the Serbian police and military committed serious crimes against the Albanians," Natasa Kandic of the Humanitarian Law Centre told the BBC.

"But the Albanian community should also accept that the Kosovo Liberation Army organised revenge, killing Serbs who decided to stay in Kosovo."

Source: BBC (29/11/2012): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20536318

Trial of army mutineers begins in Burkina Faso

Ouagadougou (AFP)


The trial of soldiers implicated in a mutiny that rocked the regime of Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore last year opened Tuesday in Ouagadougou, with verdicts handed down in a handful of cases.

In all, 346 people who are currently in detention were due to go to court in a series of trials. They are soldiers, two-thirds of whom have been dismissed from the army, with the exception of about 15 civilians.

According to a source close to the military tribunal, which began by trying five of the accused, the trials will last until the end of the "first quarter of 2013."

Between March and June last year, almost all army barracks mutinied, including that of the presidential guard, as civilians demonstrated in the streets. The events shook the regime more than any other since Compaore came to power in a military coup in 1987.

Tuesday's trial was for five soldiers, one of whom is on the run, who were accused of looting, criminal association, theft, and the illegal possession of weapons and ammunition.

Suspected of taking part in the mutinies of March 22-23 and April 15-16 in the capital of the west African country, the men received light sentences considering that they faced between 10 and 20 years in prison.

Of the four soldiers present, two were sentenced to five and six years in prison, while two others were handed suspended sentences of five and six years. The soldier on the run, for whom an arrest warrant has been issued, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The prosecution charged that weapons, notably Kalashnikov assault rifles, were found at the homes of the soldiers, as well as valuable objects.

The violent mutinies at the barracks in Ouagadougou led to the installation of a new government and the appointment of a new army chief of staff.

After a wave of uprisings across the country, accompanied by widespread looting and rapes, Compaore restructured the army and took charge of the defence ministry.

Last month, he said the crisis had passed and told troops "the mutineers had been unworthy of being in the army, and must therefore face justice."

Parliamentary and local council elections are due to take place on Sunday in this poor former French colony, which became independent in 1960. These first polls since the crisis last year are seen as a test for the regime.

Burkina Faso's army is slated to send troops as part of an African force scheduled to be deployed in northern Mali to dislodge armed Islamic extremists, though Compaore, as mediator for west African nations, favours negotiations.

Strauss-Kahn awaits 'prostitution ring' decision


Former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is due to find out whether he will stand trial on pimping charges.

The charges relate to sex parties held in a luxury hotel in the northern French city of Lille.

Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyer has asked for the case to be dropped, saying his client did not know that some of the women at the parties were prostitutes.

It is the only outstanding case Mr Strauss-Kahn faces in France.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, was widely expected to become the Socialist presidential candidate before he was arrested in May 2011 in New York, accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.

US prosecutors later dropped criminal charges, though the alleged victim, Nafissatou Diallo, is pursuing a civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault.

'Insufficient grounds'

The Lille case has become know as the Carlton affair, after the name of the hotel in which the alleged orgies took place.


Consorting with prostitutes is not against the law in France, and Mr Strauss-Kahn has acknowledged that he was at some of the parties with the women.

But Mr Strauss-Kahn's legal team says he had no idea they were prostitutes, and that there is no evidence to support a formal charge of pimping.

"We are requesting that this investigation be annulled on account of the fact that there are insufficient grounds to support it," said defence lawyer Richard Malka.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, who is reportedly taking steps to reinvent himself as a highly paid consultant and conference speaker, says the authorities are trying to "criminalise lust".

Other cases against him have already been dropped.

Last month, French prosecutors ended an investigation into allegations of "gang rape" at a hotel in Washington after the woman who made the claim retracted her evidence.

Magistrates also dropped a sexual assault case brought by French author Tristane Banon on the grounds that the alleged 2003 incident had taken place too long ago.

Source: BBC (28/11/2012): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20520976

RWANDA: Norwegian prosecution seeks maximum sentence for Genocide suspect Bugingo

By Edwin Musoni


THE Norwegian prosecution has asked the court to hand Sadi Bugingo, a sentence of 21 years in prison for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Bugingo, a Rwandan is currently standing trial in the Norwegian capital, Oslo where he is accused of being responsible for the death of 2000 Tutsis in the former Kibungo province.

“There were no extenuating circumstances in the case of Sadi Bugingo,” prosecutor Marit Formo said in her closing statement.

The 47-year-old was charged with supervising killings of 2,000 people and coordinating attacks by Interahamwe militia that targeted Tutsis.

The defendant is alleged to have taken part in meetings, ordered others to commit the killings and supervised killings, the prosecutors said in statements broadcast online.

Bugingo has denied the charges. The defence is expected to make its closing statement later this week at Oslo District Court.

The defendant was also charged with transporting refugees and armed killers to locations in Kibungo, eastern Rwanda, where killings took place, including at a local government building in the community of Birenga.

Testimonies from about 100 witnesses were key in the trial that opened in September. Some of those testimonies were heard via video link from Kigali.

According to a report from Oslo, Prosecutor Petter Mandt told the court that while their accounts might differ on some details, they put the defendant at the scene.

Bugingo has lived in Bergen, western Norway, since 2001. He was arrested last year and has been investigated by Norwegian authorities since 2008 after being contacted by Rwanda.

Source: NT (28/11/2012): http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?i=15190&a=61178

UGANDA: Court wants magistrate re-arrested over graft

By Anthony Wesaka


Kampala

The Court of Appeal on Monday ordered the arrest and return of Kisoro Grade One Magistrate David Cheptuke Kaye to Luzira Prison.

This followed his alleged dodging of court proceedings, where he was supposed to defend his appeal in which he is challenging a one-year jail term sentence handed to him in 2010 after he was found guilty of receiving a bribe of Shs100,000.

Justice Constance Byamugisha was set to hear his appeal but Cheptuke, who is out on bail pending the hearing of the appeal, was absent.

This prompted the court to order his arrest so he could be taken back to Luzira Prison to serve his sentence.
In November 2010, Anti-Corruption Court found Cheptuke guilty of corruptly receiving Shs100,000 from Ms Angela Uweyezu.

The money was an inducement to release on bail her sibilings, Denis Musekura and Richard Nterenganya, who were facing charges of malicious damage to property in his court.

Source: Daily Monitor (28/11/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Court-wants-magistrate-re-arrested-over-graft/-/688334/1630428/-/nidr8c/-/index.html

KENYA: State firm wants judge who dealt with Pattni case probed

By NATION REPORTER


A State corporation has filed a complaint against High Court judge Joseph Mutava, who is facing allegations of misconduct.

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) wants a tribunal set up to investigate Justice Mutava’s conduct in a case between it and World Duty Free, a company associated with tycoon Kamlesh Pattni.

The KAA wrote to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) asking it to recommend that President Kibaki appoints a tribunal to investigate two complaints against Justice Mutava.

The State firm said the judge acted in a biased and unprofessional manner when he issued final orders on the case after hearing one party based on an application by World Duty Free. (READ: Pattni returns to haunt Kenyans with dirty Kanu era rip-off schemes)

It says the judge was biased because he issued the final orders without the corporation’s input. The final orders allowed World Duty Free to file, register and enforce some interim protective orders arising from an arbitration matter.

KAA also complained about a decision by Justice Mutava to cite the company’s top officials for disobeying court orders issued four years ago.

The corporation said Justice Mutava ruled that the KAA managing director and company secretary were in contempt of court when the application by World Duty Free had just been filed and not heard.

It says the application was not listed for hearing when the judge ruled that KAA was in contempt. A lawyer, Zul Alibha had also complained to the LSK about the JSC’s silence on its request for action to be taken against the judge.

Mr Alibha wrote to the JSC on March 23, 2012 about Justice Mutava’s conduct and swore an affidavit on behalf of litigants who were involved in a dispute over ownership of a real estate company. 
He did not get a response, according to the LSK.

The lawyer accused Justice Mutava of throwing caution to the wind, entering into an axis and delivering compromised rulings and judgments.

On the complaint by KAA, the company officially wrote to the JSC and the LSK on the conduct of the judge and in relation to cases in court between companies associated with Mr Pattni and Judge Mutava.

LSK chairman Eric Mutua told the Nation the lawyers’ organisation had received the airports authority’s complaint and more were expected.

The LSK has asked members to submit to the society complaints against the judge so that they can be forwarded to the JSC.

The LSK made the announcement following a report by the Sunday Nation detailing allegations how the judge handled a case between KAA and World Duty Free.

A notice posted on the LSK website signed by its secretary, Mr Apollo Mboya, invites members with matters for or against Mr Pattni or his companies to submit the information to the society.

Mr Mutua said the LSK will peruse the files to investigate allegations that cases which should be handled in other divisions of the High Court are pushed to the commercial division to end up in Justice Mutava’s court.

Another lawyer, Mr Nelson Havi, had also written to the JSC to investigate the judge’s conduct.

Source: Daily Nation (28/11/2012): http://www.nation.co.ke/News/State-firm-wants-judge-who-dealt-with-Pattni-case-probed/-/1056/1630676/-/cr3oewz/-/index.html

UGANDA: A woman has dragged her fiancé to court for cancelling marriage


A woman, who made headlines after dragging her fiancé to court for refusing to wed her, has rejected the Shs2 million offered to her as compensation. Ms Catherine Kalembe took Mr Emma Mutaka to court in August, demanding Shs20 million as compensation.

Last Thursday, however, when the two appeared before Iganga Chief Magistrate Court Susan Kanyange, it was revealed that since the case had been adjourned three months ago, the couple had not come to an agreement.

“Your Lordship, I wanted to continue with the relationship and later wed her as she wanted but she refused. She told me she was no longer interested in marriage and wanted to be compensated. I then proposed to give her Shs2 million but she rejected it,” Mr Mutaka told the court.

However, Ms Kalembe’s lawyer said his client had agreed to take Shs10m but the accused did not respond. “We are ready to settle out of court if they give us the amount we want,” Mr Balidawa Ngobi, the lawyer for Kalembe, said.

‘Strange case’

According to her, when she introduced Mr Mutaka to her parents in Kisozi Village, Kamuli District in 2010 as her fiancé, she was sure a wedding would follow shortly, to cement their relationship.

In her submission to the Iganga Chief Magistrate, Ms Kalembe lamented that Saturday December 17, 2011, should have been her lucky day—the day she should have walked down the aisle with her fiancé.

Instead, she says, she nearly collapsed when Pastor Kasakya of Iganga Deliverance Church, who was to preside over the function, told her Mr Mutaka had halted the wedding “until further notice”.

In what many in Iganga described as a “strange” case, Ms Kalembe, a resident of Nkono Zone in the municipality, said Mr Mutaka, who is the Naads coordinator for Bukanga Sub-county in Luuka District, should pay for failing to marry her.

Through her lawyers, she then asked court to compel Mr Mutaka to compensate her with Shs20m as costs for general damages, saying that the act was unlawful and tantamount to breach of promise to marry her but the accused asked for the case to be settled out of court.

In the suit, Ms Kalembe says she facilitated their introduction ceremony and made it “colourful” with a Shs2m cash injection—and it is just proper that her former fiancé—who “had a small income” then, reciprocates.

The chief magistrate gave them up to February 21 to agree on the compensation or the case would be heard again. Ms Kalembe says her misery is further compounded by the fact that her house in Nkono Zone in Iganga Town is where the couple had cohabited during “tough” times and that she had contributed Shs2 million to help her fiancé get a job.

Source: Daily Monitor (27/11/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Woman-rejects-Shs2m-pay-offer-for-cancelled-wedding/-/688334/1629726/-/2vw5lh/-/index.html

TANZANIA: Fair Competition Act for review

Written by ORTON KIISHWEKO


THE Fair Competition law forming the Fair Competition Commission and Fair Competition Tribunal is up for a major overhaul. It is an exercise that would target institutional weaknesses, agency effectiveness and anti-competitive trade clauses.

The envisaged changes will also target counterfeit, consumer protection issues and effectiveness of the Fair Competition Commission and Fair Competition Tribunal. One such radical move, it is understood, may see a provision that considers introduction of criminal sanctions against shareholders, directors and officers of an enterprise engaged in cartel behaviour.

The imminent changes come in the wake of findings from a UNCTAD Voluntary Peer Review of Competition Law and Policy Tripartite Report on Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Speaking at a workshop to review the findings in Dar es Salaam, the Minister for Industry and Trade, Dr Abdallah Kigoda, said the voluntary Peer Review has come up with recommendations on institutional issues and Agency effectiveness. Subsequently, it has also come up with recommendations on anti-competitive trade practices, counterfeit and consumer protection issues, brought up on comparative basis and affording them an opportunity to reflect on areas for improvement.

Dr Kigoda said a well-functioning competition authority will instill investors’ confidence in the market. The Fair Competition Act, 2003, protects and promotes competition for non-network providers of goods and services in the economy and also carries the legal basis for consumer protection.

The Chairman of the Fair Competition Commission, Mr Nikubuka Shimwela, said that while the commission has been working progressively with success, the Fair Competition Act is currently under review and amendments would be tabled in Parliament ‘any time from now.’

Giving a candid analysis of the weaknesses in the current Act operational in Tanzaia, the Chief Executive of the Botswana Competition Authority, Mr Thula Kaira, said: ‘The thrust of the findings is that effective implementation of competition law needs to be secured sufficient funding as provided for in the law, as well as thrugh some improvements in the legal framework.

The FCC may currently be limited in effective efforcement of the FCA due to express exemptions from the application of the FCA of selected but key regulated sectors.” The report on Tanzania notes that while the law calls for punishment to directors and shareholders of a company, there is no mechanism of how these would be dealt with under the FCA.

Some other highlights pointed out by the report are that funding to FCC and the FCT must be predictable and implementable as provided for under section 78(c) of the FCA. “There must be a mandatory provision to deal with remittance of funds to the FCC and FCT and it should not be discretional.

There must be an appeals process to secure the funds,”it notes It also notes that provision for the FCC to appeal to the Minister in case a regulator makes an uncompetitive decision is flawed since it can be politicized.

Some of the anti competitive trade practices, expected to be changed, include inclusion of vertical agreements in the law, enumeration of conduct to be considered misuse of market power, introduce joint or combined dominance in the Fair Competition Act, introduce a new provision to deal with buyer power in the Act to address concerns raised in the agricultural sector and removal of the tying of intention and negligence to cartel conduct under section 9(4) of the Act.

The report also seeks the Act to empower FCC to issue summons when the commission wanted any information. It also wants the application of FCA to the state and state bodies not to depend on whether they are engaged in trade, rather whether their acts, arrangements or behaviour affect trade. Determination of an anticompetitive conduct should not depend on whether the conduct was committed intentionally or negligently.

The review report regarding the implantation of Tanzania’s Competition law and policy was discussed during the 12th session of inter-governmental Experts (IGE) on competition law and policy was held in Geneva, Switzerland mid this year. Tanzania’s competition law has been reviewed along with competition laws of Zambia and Zimbabwe which share similar economic environment.

Source: Daily News (27/11/2012): http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/12040-fair-competition-act-for-review

Yasser Arafat's remains exhumed in murder inquiry


The remains of Yasser Arafat have been exhumed, Palestinian officials say, as part of an investigation into how the Palestinian leader died.

Swiss, French and Russian experts will take samples to establish whether his death, at a military hospital in Paris in 2004, was the result of poisoning.

France began a murder inquiry in August after Swiss experts found radioactive polonium-210 on his personal effects.

Arafat's medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.

His widow, Suha, objected to a post-mortem at the time, but asked the Palestinian Authority to permit the exhumation "to reveal the truth".

Sealed tomb

Arafat's body lay in a stone-clad mausoleum inside the Muqataa presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The mausoleum was sealed off earlier this month.


Palestinian officials told the Associated Press that the remains were taken from the mausoleum to a nearby mosque, so that Palestinian doctors could take samples from the bones.

With the body removed from the tomb, the scientists will each take samples and then go to their respective countries to carry out tests for polonium-210 and possibly other lethal substances.

It is believed that the investigation could take several months.

Before the exhumation, the head of the Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, Tawfik al-Tirawi, said no journalists would be allowed to observe the exhumation.

"Because [of the] sanctity of the symbol and the sanctity of this event, [the exhumation] should not be permitted to be in front of the media," the former Palestinian intelligence chief said.

A reburial ceremony, with full military honours, is expected to take place later on Tuesday.

Many Palestinians continue to believe Arafat was poisoned by Israel, which saw Arafat as an obstacle to peace and had put him under house arrest. Israel has strongly denied any involvement.

TV documentary

Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 inside the Muqataa.

Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.


In 2005, the New York Times obtained a copy of Arafat's medical records, which it said showed he died of a massive haemorrhagic stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection.

Independent experts who reviewed the records told the paper that it was highly unlikely that he had been poisoned.

A murder inquiry was launched by French prosecutors in August after an investigation by al-Jazeera TV, working with scientists at the Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, found "significant" traces of polonium-210 present in samples taken from Arafat's personal effects, including his trademark keffiyeh headdress.

In some cases, the elevated levels were 10 times higher than those on control subjects, and most of the polonium could not have come from natural sources, the scientists said.

But the institute also said that Arafat's symptoms - as described in his medical records - were not consistent with polonium poisoning.

The former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died of exposure to polonium-210 in London in 2006. The UK authorities have accused Andrei Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer, of poisoning his tea.

Source: BBC (27/11/2012): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20501945


KENYA: Philip Moi arrested in Nairobi

By NATION REPORTER


Philip Moi was on Monday arrested at his Nairobi home and is expected to be arraigned in court.

In July, his estranged wife succeeded in an application to extend jurisdiction under which her husband can be arrested. Read (Pluda seeks Philip Moi's arrest)

Justice GBM Kariuki allowed an application by Ms Rossana Pluda, through her lawyer Judy Thongori, seeking to extend the jurisdiction under which Mr Moi can be arrested for failing to pay her maintenance fee as had been ordered by the court, to be extended to cover the entire country.

Initially, Mr Moi could only be placed under arrest within Muthaiga area, Nairobi.

Mr Moi had been ordered to pay Ms Pluda Sh250,000 a month for her upkeep and the maintenance of their two children. However, Mr Moi failed to comply.

The application filed by Ms Pluda Moi, on July 4, 2012 required that the orders of the arrest and detention in civil jail at the industrial area, Nairobi that were issued against Mr Moi for execution by the officers in charge of the police station nearest Mr Moi’s place of residence be expanded to include the order that the Commissioner of Police to execute such arrest whenever the respondent maybe in the Republic of Kenya.

Source: Daily Nation (26/11/2012): http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Philip-Moi-arrested-in-Nairobi/-/1056/1629386/-/v4e6bk/-/index.html

RWANDA: Chief Justice decries cases of sexual violence

By Edwin Musoni


Chief Sam Rugege has decried high levels of sexual abuses around the world.

Addressing an international conference on prosecuting sexual violence crimes in Kigali yesterday, Prof. Rugege expressed the need to have appropriate ways of curbing sexually related crimes. 

“In Rwanda, we still have the problem of many cases of women and girls that are sexually abused and raped but we have put in place measures to deal with the problem, including the law against child abuse and the new penal code that provides for tough sentences for crimes of sexual violence,” said the Chief Justice.

Rugege added that statistically, Rwanda’s situation is not very alarming although the figures are still high.

“The high figures of sexual violence crimes are not unique to Rwanda, it’s a problem of the world, and neighbouring countries are facing the same problem,” he said. 

He said that the biggest problem is victims of sexual violence may not easily come out to testify against such crimes.

“We live in a community where people don’t openly talk about such issues which become hard for investigators and prosecutors to gather information from the victims but also there is still a problem, where lawyers and investigators may not know of the appropriate skills interrogating the victims.”

He proposed that the most appropriate ways of managing such cases is to continuously train investigators, prosecutors and lawyers on how best to handle victims without causing more trauma.

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Hassan Bubacar Jallow, also expressed concerns of the state of sexual violence around the world, saying it has become a global concern.

“Analysing the state of sexual violence worldwide, I would conclude that it is in a terrible state. In most of the conflict situations we face today in the world, whether it is DRC or Sudan, sexual violence has become very prevalent and we need to find a way of dealing with this problem as a global community with what is really a biggest challenge to human rights,” he said.

According to Jallow, sexual violence is the biggest challenge the world is facing when it come to situations of conflict areas.

“We need to find ways of not only to prevent but where we fail to prevent at least we hold people responsible to account,” said Jallow.

During the workshop, the ICTR’s Office of Prosecutor presented its two manuals that were prepared on the investigation and prosecution of sexual violence.

The first manual is investigation and prosecution, while the second one deals with the management, “..basically how you treat the victim and the witnesses because those are crucial cases, the victims may be suffering from trauma or other conditions how you treat them is important,” said Jallow.

“The manuals were prepared in the context of the tribunal’s best practices because we feel that as the ICTR is about to close, it has acquired a lot of experience in some of the areas of these operations including some of the success and challenges that we have faced.

“It is important that we share with national and international prosecutors, some of these lessons can be drawn from the work that we have done so far,” said Jallow.

Most of the cases that we have prosecuted at the ICTR have included charges of sexual violence,  some of them the Prosecutor succeeded on securing conviction, while others he were not successful.

The conference has attracted participants from ICTR, the International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda.

Source: NT (27/11/2012): http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?i=15189&a=61141

Germany prosecutors charge former Nazi for 1944 killing

Alison Sacriponte at 10:37 AM ET


[JURIST] German prosecutors on Monday charged 91-year-old former member of the Nazi Waffen SS [USHMM backgrounder] Siert Bruins with the murder of a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944. The Dortmund prosecutor [official website, in German] accused Bruins of executing [AP report] captured Dutch Nazi-opposition fighter Aldert Klaas Dijkema in September 1944 outside the town of Appingedam. Bruins and an accomplice, who has since died, are accused of taking Dijkema, a prisoner at the time, to an isolated location and then shooting him four times. The suspects reported at the time that Dijkema had been trying to escape when they shot him. The case has been assigned to a separate court in Hagen to determine whether the case should proceed. Bruins, who obtained German citizenship through his service in the German military, has been taken into custody. Bruins has already served time in the 1980s for the murders of two Dutch Jews during the war.

Germany has recently reopened investigations [JURIST report] and begun prosecuting Nazis for war crimes. In March John Demjanjuk, a former guard at a Nazi death camp who had been convicted in Germany of helping to murder thousands during the Holocaust, died while awaiting his appeal [JURIST reports]. In January German prosecutors filed a motion [JURIST report] to jail Klaas Faber, a Dutch native who fled to Germany after being convicted in the Netherlands in 1947 of Nazi war crimes. In September 2011 alleged Nazi Sandor Kepiro died while he awaited an appeal [JURIST report] on his acquittal on war crimes charges. The Dortmund state prosecutor also brought murder charges [JURIST report] against another former Waffen SS soldier, Heinrich Boere, for killing three Dutch resistance fighters in July 2009. The following year Boere was sentenced [JURIST report] to life in prison.

Source: JURIST (26/11/2012): http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/11/germany-prosecutors-charge-former-nazi-for-1944-killing.php

DAR ES SALAAM: Police form to fight gender based violence

Written by ORTON KIISHWEKO


A REVIEW of the Police Form number three (PF3) is a development expected to help women affected by gender based violence (GBV) get immediate attention at hospital, the Deputy Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Ms Angela Kairuki has said.

She said in Dar es Salaam that the form launched on Monday, will also be used as evidence in court to help those affected to get justice, especially sexual violence. She asked police to educate the public on changes in the form, adding that the older PF3 form had weaknesses.

The Deputy Minister said when launching a national campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence in Dar es Salaam yesterday. It has been done in partnership with Ministry of gender, community development and children. She said shortly after receiving a procession which started at Mnazi mmoja in the morning where various individuals including the diplomatic corps attended.

The celebrations, which started on Monday will end on December 10, on international Human rights day, after a caravan, a national procession against violence against women, which started in Dar es Salaam on Monday would have gone to Morogoro, Pwani, Dodoma, Singida, Kigoma, Tabora, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, Tanga and Arusha, Mwanza, Shinyanga , Mara, Mwara, Lindi, Mbeya, Iringa and Songea. Ms Kairuki said reported cases of gender violence have almost doubled in the last one year, according to latest reports.

She said research carried out by WiLDAF this year shows that some 6001 cases were reported in media as compared to 3542 in 2011. She said the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991.

Participants chose the dates November 25-International Day against Violence against Women and December 10 -International Human Rights Day- in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights.

Source: Daily News (27/11/2012): http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/12052-police-form-to-fight-gender-based-violence

KENYA: Judiciary to assist ICC on Kenyan cases, says CJ Mutunga

By VALENTINE OBARA

An International Crimes Division (ICD) being set up in the High Court has nothing to do with the Kenyan cases at The Hague, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has said.

Dr Mutunga said on Monday the ICD was at an advanced stage.

He said Kenya was committed to cooperating with the International Criminal Court. “The ICC is not a foreign court. It is Kenyan as we ratified the Rome Statute,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, former Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura and radio presenter Joshua Sang are facing crimes against humanity charges at The Hague.

The ICD, with seven judges and an independent prosecutor, will be based in Nairobi although it will sit anywhere it is directed by the CJ.

JSC chairman Samuel Kobia said the division, which would prosecute cases that could not be handled by the ICC, will have a fully funded witness protection agency.

“We cannot talk about sovereignty if we cannot ensure justice for all. The division is not meant to take away the four cases from the ICC, there are thousands of cases that also need to be tried,” Rev Kobia said.

He said if the four Kenyans facing trial at the ICC requested their cases to be transferred to the ICD, proper legal procedures would have to be followed. Read (Bid to have ICC trials in Kenya denied)

Dr Mutunga and Rev Kobia were speaking at Strathmore University in Nairobi at a workshop for journalists on election and ICC coverage.

Attorney-General Githu Muigai told participants he would cooperate with the ICC and denied Kenya was withholding evidence on the cases.

He criticised the US for questioning Kenya’s commitment to the ICC despite it not being a signatory to the Rome Statute.

Source: Daily Nation (26/11/2012): http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Judiciary-to-assist-ICC-on-Kenyan-cases-says-CJ-Mutunga/-/1064/1629302/-/130auuh/-/index.html

East African Law Society condemns police raid on law firm

By Frederic Musisi


The East African Law Society (EALS) has condemned the manner in which officials from police Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (CIID) stormed the law firm of Osinde and Company Advocates during the ongoing pension scam inquiries.

On November 13, CIID officials raided the law firm, which is linked to two suspects implicated in the pension scam, and confiscated files containing information concerning their property.

Ms Grace Akullo, the CIID boss, said then that intelligence revealed that records of the suspects’ documented hidden wealth were in the custody of their lawyers hence necessitating the raid.

The suspects under investigations are Mr David Oloka, a senior assistant accountant in the Public Service Ministry and Christopher Obey, the principal accountant.

A statement from EALS said that the CIID officers descended on the law firm, proceeded to search and carry away unspecified volumes of client files by force, duress, harassment and intimidation.

“The EALS joins issue with the Uganda Law Society in condemning in the strongest terms possible the said raid,” read part of the statement. The society urged government to respect all communications and consultations between lawyers and their clients within their professional relationship that is confidential and should not be the subject of interference by third parties.

The regional lawyers’ body vowed to provide the Uganda Law Society all support in challenging the provisions of the municipal law under which the Ugandan police continues to violate the lawyer-client confidentiality principle.

Source: Daily Monitor (26/11/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/EA-Law-Society-condemns-police-raid-on-law-firm/-/688334/1628910/-/76odjf/-/index.html

TANZANIA: Singida security guard jailed for theft

Written by ABBY NKUNGU in Singida 


THE Utemini Primary Court in Singida town has sentenced Jumanne Juma, 47, a night watchman, to three years imprisonment on his own plea of guilty to three counts of theft.

Juma, who is a resident of Utemini area in Singida town is alleged to have committed the offences, including breaking into a business stall and stealing various items and property, belonging to his employer, Hosea Mkunde, a magistrate at Ipembe Primary Court in Singida Municipality.

The accused is alleged to have committed the offence at Utemini area on November 03, this year, at around 11p.m. at night. In the first and second counts, the court was told that on the material day the accused broke into the business stall, in which he was employed to take care of, and stole a weighing scale and a number of recharge vouchers all worth 500,000/.

In the third count, he was alleged to have neglected and unreasonably failed to prevent an offence to occur contrary to the law. Shortly after the charge sheet was read to the accused, he pleaded guilty to the offence but asked the presiding magistrate Ferdinand Njau to be lenient to him as he was a straight forward man who did not waste the court’s time.

“My Lordship, I am sincerely asking your honourable court to be lenient to me because I did not waste its timeÉ I have been straight forward and open by telling the truth. I am also ready to pay back the 500,000/- in compensation for the items stolen,” the accused pleaded with the court.

After hearing the plea of the accused, Magistrate Njau told him that one of the roles of the court is to reform bad conducts and misbehaviour willfully caused by some unfaithful members of the public.

“I therefore sentence you to jail for three years for the first count, 12 months for the second count and six months for the third count. However, you will serve only three years in prison as the sentences run concurrently,” Mr Njau concluded.

Source: Daily News (26/11/2012): http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/12022-singida-security-guard-jailed-for-theft

Egypt crisis: Mohammed Mursi to meet top judges

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi is due to meet senior judges to try to ease a crisis over the extent of his powers.

A decree giving him sweeping new powers was announced on Thursday, sparking violent nationwide protests and leading to a 9% drop in Egypt's stock market.

Mr Mursi said on Sunday the decree was temporary and not intended to concentrate power in his hands.

He was committed to finding "common ground" with other parties, he said.

He also hoped to reach consensus on a new constitution currently being drafted, he added, and the decree was intended to prevent democratically elected bodies from being undermined.

Mediation efforts

The Judges' Club, which represents judges throughout the country, called for a nationwide strike to protest against the decree over the weekend.


But the top judicial body, the Supreme Judicial Council, appeared not to reject the decree outright, saying it should only apply to "sovereign matters", and urged judges to return to work.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky has begun efforts to mediate between the president and the judges.

The minister said he himself had some reservations about the president's decree, Reuters reported.

The president is due to meet members of the Supreme Judicial Council later to discuss the decree, reports said.

Several prominent opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed elBaradei, have said they will not engage in dialogue with the president until he rescinds the measure, known as the constitutional declaration.

Teenager dies

According to President Mursi's decree, no authority can revoke presidential decisions.


There is also a bar on judges dissolving the assembly, which is drawing up a new constitution.

The decree has sparked violent protests in Cairo and across the country since it was announced.

On Sunday, a teenager died and 60 people were injured in clashes in the Nile Delta town of Damanhour,

Described as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that backs Mr Mursi, 15-year-old Islam Fathy Massoud was killed after its headquarters were attacked.

Other clashes saw police firing tear gas in Cairo's Tahrir Square area.

Large demonstrations are planned by supporters and opponents of Mr Mursi on Tuesday.

Source: BBC (26/11/2012): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20490827


RWANDA: Interpol seeks arrests of 130 genocide fugitives

By Edwin Musoni

International experts on Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity who are meeting at Interpol’s general Secretariat in France, have expressed urgency to arrest over 130 genocide fugitives that have been indicted by Rwanda.

Several Genocide fugitives are still in hiding either in Africa or Europe and have eluded justice for more that sixteen years. 

The experts expressed concern during the 5th International Expert Meeting on Genocide, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity, organised by Interpol General Secretariat.

Over 150 law enforcement and judicial experts from 44 countries are attending the meeting.

Speaking at the event, John Bosco Siboyintore, the head of Rwanda’s Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit, bluntly told the large gathering  that the world was moving at a snail’s pace in apprehending and prosecuting genocide suspects who live openly and in large numbers  in their midst.

In an email sent to The Sunday Times, Siboyintore said, “My call to the international community was to narrow the impunity gap. Say no to safe havens for genocide perpetrators living in their respective jurisdictions. Although the 1994 genocide was committed against Tutsis, it was also committed to the whole world.” 

He hastened to add that his office had issued 156 indictments and international arrest warrants to 27 countries, both in Africa, Europe and North America, but very few suspects have been apprehended or tried, leaving a large number enjoying impunity in their host countries.

“I urged Interpol to put in place stringent measures to curtail their movements by placing the indicted fugitives on red notices to disable them from moving from one place to another,” said Siboyintore.

At the event, Interpol’s director of operational police services, Mick O’Connell, said: “Interpol has assisted and supported international criminal tribunals and courts and national authorities in achieving extremely important results in their investigations on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crime. 

“International investigations are being enhanced and prominent war criminals and mass atrocities perpetrators have been identified, located and brought to justice. Yet plenty of work remains, with nine fugitives, for example, still wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and more than 130 red notices issued at the request of NCB Kigali still outstanding,” he said.

However, Interpol’s Secretary General, Ronald K. Noble: “Investigations into war crimes are extremely complex. Bringing together international experts to share their knowledge is part of Interpol’s ongoing commitment to support the efforts of its 190 member countries to protect their citizens through the location and arrest of suspected war criminals so that they are brought to justice”. 

In this respect, the conference heard that Védaste Banguwiha, who is wanted by Interpol’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in Kigali for alleged complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity, was detained in October by authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after he was identified from a single hit when immigration records were cross-checked against Interpol’s global wanted persons database.

This is not the first time such a concern is being expressed publicly. When the Association of African Prosecutors (APA) met in Kigali in August 2011, a similar call was made. 

Although the call goes to the whole world, in Africa many Genocide fugitives live in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congo Brazaville, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

In Europe, a big number has been identified in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Other European countries where fugitives have been identified are United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, and Finland. There are also those that have been identified in New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.

The most wanted genocide suspects, Felicien Kabuga, the chief financer of the genocide, and Protais Mpiranya who was the commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion during the genocide, are still at large despite the bounty placed on their heads by the United States. 

Kabuga and Mpiranyi are believed to be residing in Kenya and Zimbabwe respectively, where they are believed to be under tight protection and running big businesses.

Source: ST (25/11/2012): http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?i=15187&a=13051

KENYA: UK lawyer visits to tighten Mau Mau case

By LILLIAN ONYANGO

A group of Mau Mau war veterans have to come to Nairobi from time to time, many kilometres away from the comfort of their villages, to attend meetings concerning their case against the British Government.

They want the British Government to pay for the torture they suffered in the hands of its officials during the colonial rule.

Last week’s visit to Nairobi was one rather unusual for the senior citizens. This time they got to meet and shake hands with the British lawyer who is representing them in their case filed in London.

Counsel Dan Leader interacted with the group with ease. He speaks some Swahili.

“I speak enough Swahili to get me a glass of water and to make them laugh,” he told the Sunday Nation.

Mr Leader, who lived in Mombasa in 2000-2001 where he picked up the language, was on a special mission in the country.

The lawyer is a senior partner at Leigh Day and Company in London, which has been working with the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Mau Mau War Veterans Association 2009 on the suit.

“We have in the country now a team of 15 lawyers who are working with KHRC and the MMWVA, travelling from district to district interviewing each person who claims to have suffered abuse,” Mr Leader said.

He explained that the exercise is of great importance to the team which has now won two very historic judgments in the High Court in London.

“It is very important that we have complete confidence in the victim group that is being presented to us, which is why we are interviewing each person carefully ourselves,” he said. “This was a legal victory which no one thought was possible for us to win.”

In October, the court ruled that the British Government must answer for the torture of thousands of Kenyans.

“This is a historic moment for the victims who have lived with the trauma of what they went through for decades and finally the world knows what really happened during the Kenya Emergency,” the lawyer with an inclination for international human rights said.

The successful result of the test case of three people, representative of the claimants, has encouraged the team to cast their net wider and seek out more people who suffered under the colonial rule.

However, not just any grey haired person who lived during those times will qualify.

Mr Leader said the visits to the districts are guided by a list of 40,280 people registered under MMWVA which were created in 2010 as “we cannot open up the list to all the pensioners in Kenya, that is a lot of people.”

“And the way we are doing this is that we have a detailed questionnaire which asks them to list the areas the individuals were detained in, in detail and to explain the nature of the abuse they were subjected to, if any,” Mr Leader explained, adding that they will now be taking cases of thousands of people to the court.

Since the case began, a number of organisations have sprung up claiming to represent Mau Mau veterans and another law firm from Britain – Tandem Law – interviewing potential claimants. Mr Leader distanced his law firm from those other groups.

Reaching out


The vetting process has seen them turn down a quarter of the 4,000 cases they have so far interviewed. The team of lawyers has so far been to Kiambu and are currently in Nyeri. Ukambani and Embu and Meru will be their next destination.

“We want to make sure that wherever genuine Mau Mau can be found, we will get to them,” said KHRC senior programmes officer George Morara.

Also, instructions from the High Court are that the case will proceed on living victims. Therefore, should a claimant die before the case is concluded, their family cannot make the claim in their place.

The British Government has lodged an appeal in the case but Mr Leader is confident of victory.

“The British Government will have to ask itself how it can go around the world lecturing countries like Syria and Zimbabwe when it is unwilling to give redress to people who were tortured by the British,” he said.

A comprehensive scheme to include welfare and medical needs for the victims, an apology and memorial are some of the things they seek from Britain.


Source: Sunday Nation (25/11/2012): http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UK-lawyer-visits-to-tighten-Mau-Mau-case-/-/1056/1628416/-/1ddwpt/-/index.html

Union structure divides Zanzibaris

BY MWINYI SADALLAH


As the Constitutional Review Commission proceeds with the task of gathering public views for the envisaged new constitution, leaders, activists and common people in Zanzibar have registered different stances on the structure of the Union between Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

A survey by The Guardian on Sunday here has revealed that most views given by Zanzibaris were either influenced by political party or government leaders.

However, Zanzibar President Dr Ali Mohammed Shein has been quoted in several meetings as saying he would always defend the existing two-tier government structure of the Union.

The current structure of the Union is stipulated in the country as well as the ruling party constitutions.

Dr Shein’s stance is supported by the Constitutional Review Act, 2010. The Act has already laid boundaries over the current structure of the Union. Section 9 (2-1) of the Constitution Review Act 2010 states: “The commission shall adhere to the national values and ethos and shall, in that respect, safeguard and promote the following matters:- the existence of the United Republic, the existence of Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, the republican nature of governance, the existence of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, national unity, cohesion and peace.” Dr Shein said the current structure of the Union has been beneficial to the Zanzibaris, adding that as a result of the current Union the islanders have been able to own land and construct houses on the Mainland.

They have also been able to fully exploit the market for their business provided by about 45 million people living on Mainland Tanzania.

But the President’s stance is opposed by even some leaders within the Revolutionary government of Zanzibar. First Zanzibar Vice President Maalim Seif Sharrif Hamad is reported to have called several times for adoption of the three-tier government structure, consisting of Union, Zanzibar and Mainland governments.

The first Zanzibar vice president goes further calling for the establishment of contractual union between the two sides.

In recent months there has been a movement in the isles for Zanzibar to regain it full autonomy.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY (25/11/2012): http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=48356

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