January 24, 2000

 

Surrender of Rwandan to War Crimes Tribunal Sets Precedent

New York --The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights welcomes today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for U.S. officials to hand over Elizaphan Ntakirutimana to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The Court, without comment, refused a request to review a 5th U.S. Circuit Court’s ruling that ordered the surrender of Ntakirutimana.

"This decision sets an important domestic precedent as Mr. Ntakirutimana is the first person that the U.S. has been asked to surrender to either of the international criminal tribunals, " said Michael Posner, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee. "It also sends an important signal to other nations, that the U.S. is willing to put into practice the same cooperation it asks of others."

Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, who is a Hutu and was the chief Pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Rwanda, was taken into custody in Laredo, Texas in 1996. Two ICTR indictments charge him with genocide and crimes against humanity related to the killings of thousands of Tutsis in Mugonero and Bisesero, Rwanda, in the spring of 1994. He has been fighting surrender in the U.S. court system since his arrest.

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in August 1999 upheld a District Court’s decision in August 1998, which overturned the Texas District Court’s decision in December 1987. The Texas District Court argued that surrender would be unconstitutional in the absence of a treaty and that the evidence of genocide was insufficient to establish "probable cause." The U.S. Government then re-filed its request. In an amicus brief, filed by Debevoise & Plimpton, the Lawyers Committee argued that surrender was not unconstitutional since Congress can properly authorize extradition by statute, and that the judge magistrate had not applied proper standards in concluding there was no "probable cause." Judge Rainey accepted these arguments when he ruled that Ntakirutimana's surrender is constitutional and that the indictments show probable cause to sustain the genocide charges.

Today’s decision clears the way for U.S. officials to hand Ntakirutimana over to the ICTR’s detention facilities in Arusha, Tanzania.

For more information on the case of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, and the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court, see Rwanda Tribunal: Surrender of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana.