Rwanda

War crimes suspect on trial in The Hague

Article published on the 2008-10-13 Latest update 2008-10-13 15:37 TU

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The trial of an alleged member of the Rwandan extremist Hutu group Interahamwe begins on Monday. Joseph Mpambara, 40, is accused of committing war crimes during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, charged with the murders of people in an ambulance, all women and children, in April 1984.

Mpambara is also charged with raping four women and murdering of three of them, abducting and murdering children, and murdering people seeking refuge in a Seventh-day Adventist church in western Rwanda.

He was also allegedly linked to the Interahamwe, a group partially responsible for the murders of 800,000 minority Tutsis during the genocide.

Mpambara was originally accused of genocide in The Hague, but the Dutch court of appeals struck down the charges.

This new trial focuses on war crimes and torture instead.

Mpambara originally came to the attention of the Dutch authorities in 1998 when he applied for asylum. His request was denied, and prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into his background instead, arresting him on the original genocide charges in 2006.

His brother, Obed Ruzindana, was sentenced to 25 years of prison in 2001 by the Tanzania-based, UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) for crimes against humanity.

The Netherlands, among other nations, has agreed to try Rwandan genocide suspects as a way to ease the backlog of the ICTR.

The judgement against Mpambara is set to be handed down on 24 November.