August 7, 1998

Lawyers Committee Applauds Surrender of
Rwandan to War Crimes Tribunal

New York--The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights welcomes the decision of US District Judge John Rainey to order the surrender of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Ntakirutimana, who is a Hutu and was President of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Rwanda, has been indicted for genocide. The indictments charge that he "raised" an armed mob of Hutus, led them to his church compound in Kibuye Prefecture and directed the slaughter of large numbers of local Tutsis who had been encouraged to seek refuge there.

In a December decision, the Texas District Court refused to approve an earlier Justice Department request to surrender Ntakirutimana for trial by the International Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. The District Court argued that this would be unconstitutional in the absence of a treaty and that the evidence was insufficient to establish "probable cause." The Government then re-filed its request.

In an amicus brief, the Lawyers Committee argued that Congress can properly authorize extradition by statue and that the judge magistrate had not applied proper standards in concluding there was no "probable cause." In his decision last week, Judge Rainey accepted these arguments. He ruled that Ntakirutimana's surrender is constitutional and that the indictments show probable cause to sustain the genocide charges. Ntakirutimana, who is now in detention pending his surrender to the Tribunal, has 30 days in which to file a habeus corpus petition.

"This case sets an important precedent, because it is the first time the US has been asked to surrender an indictee to the war crimes tribunals for either Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia," said Stefanie Grant, director of program and policy at the Lawyers Committee. Tribunals do not have independent police powers and must rely on governments to arrest indictees for trial. "If the US fails to ensure his surrender to the Tribunal, it would likely result in impunity since US courts have no jurisdiction to prosecute acts of genocide for which he was responsible in Rwanda."

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights filed an amicus brief in support of the United States' second request for the surrender to the Rwanda Tribunal of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana. To see the brief, prepared with the assistance of Debevoise & Plimpton, click here.