A Blog on International Justice
José Efraín Ríos Montt, former dictator of Guatemala, has been found guilty of genocide for his role in the slaughter of 1,771 people belonging to the indigenous Mayan ethnic group known as the Ixil in the 1980s. The 86 year old was found guilty by a three-judge tribunal and sentenced to 80 years in prison, 50 [...]
Ieng Sary, a co-founder of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge movement in the 1970s, has died while on trial before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). He was 87. The Former Deputy Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs was accused together with Nuon Chea, Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party, and former head of state [...]
Justin Mugenzi (left) and Prosper Mugiraneza (Photo: AFP) The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) today acquitted two former Rwandan ministers whom the Trial Chamber had sentenced to 30 years in jail. The Appeals Chamber overturned convictions for conspiracy to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide against Justin Mugenzi, who [...]
José Efraín Ríos Montt, who presided over one of the bloodiest periods of Guatemala’s civil war, will stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in connection with the killing of 1771 indigenous Ixil Mayans during his rule in 1982-1983. The prosecutor Orlando López said during hearings that Ríos Montt wanted to wipe [...]
by Alexis Demirdjian* – Legal Officer at the Office of the Prosecutor, ICTY A version with footnotes and references is available here. In early 2012, the French Assemblée Nationale adopted a bill criminalizing the denial of genocides, amongst others that of the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians living on its territory, between [...]
On 19 November 2012, a Danish court upheld the decision of Denmark’s Government to extradite Emmanuel Mbarushimana, a Rwandan national suspected of partaking in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi group in Rwanda. Mbarushimana has been in Denmark for the last 12 years after leaving Rwanda where he was a school inspector. An immediate appeal [...]
During the last US Presidential debate, Mitt Romney claimed that, if elected US President, he would bring Iran’s President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, before the “World Court” for incitement to genocide. Can he? In an interview given to The Economist, Ilawyer Guénaël Mettraux gives his opinion. For him, it not impossible, but very unlikely to happen. Share [...]
In an effort to raise awareness about genocide and war crimes and the FBI’s part in helping to combat them, the FBI recently announced the launch of its Genocide War Crimes Program website. The mission of the FBI’s Genocide War Crimes Unit (GWCU)— the Bureau entity responsible for leading the charge against these kinds of horrific crimes [...]
Significant developments are reported this week in relation to the proceedings brought in Canada and in Denmark against suspected Rwandan genocidaires. In Ottawa, Mr Jacques Mungwarere, a former Rwandan schoolteacher, is accused of having taken part in mass killings of civilians, including notorious massacres in two churches and a hospital in Kibuye. He is being prosecuted [...]
In a second commemoration this week for those who were lost to violence and genocide in the early 1990s, 7 April marks 18 years since the start of the Rwandan Genocide. In a story we have unfortunately all come to know well, on 6 April 1994, a plane carrying Rwandan President and Hutu, Habaryimana was shot down, killing the [...]