ARUSHA, TANZANIA (BNO NEWS) — A United Nations (UN) tribunal has transferred the case of fugitive war criminal Aloys Ndimbati, a former government official in Rwanda who has been charged with crimes against humanity, to local authorities, officials said on Tuesday.
The flag of the United Nations, flying at United Nations Plaza in the Civic Center, San Francisco, California, United States of America
Ndimbati, who is believed to be in his early 60s, served as mayor of Gisovu commune in Kibuye province from 1990 until July 1994. He has been charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, as well as with murder, extermination, rape and persecution as crimes against humanity.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Referral Chamber said it will refer the case of Ndimbati to Rwandan authorities, which will then turn over the case to the country’s High Court. The former government official has been able to avoid arrest for nearly two decades, and the UN tribunal expressed hope that Rwandan authorities will enforce “the highest standards of international justice” in carrying out its commitments.
According to prosecutors, Ndimbati, along with others, was involved in the planning and execution of the systematic attacks directed against the Tutsi civilian population in Gisovu commune during the Rwandan genocide, which began in April 1994. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slain over the course of about 100 days.
Ndimbati’s case is the seventh to be transferred to Rwandan authorities by the ICTR, which is based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha and was set up after the Rwandan genocide. The bloodletting followed the deaths of then-Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira, who both died when their plane was brought down as it prepared to land in Kigali.
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