Four men have won a High Court battle to halt extradition to Rwanda where they face mass murder charges.
Senior judges ruled that there was "a real risk" they would suffer "a flagrant denial of justice".
All four are wanted in connection with the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed in 100 days.
The men deny involvement in the genocide and say they would not receive a fair trial if they were forced to return to Rwanda.
Anti-genocide campaigners condemned the court's decision, saying that it sent a message to the Rwandan people that the suspected killers of their families could "walk free with impunity".
The court ordered the four men, who have been held in custody since December 2006, be released.
They are: Dr Vincent Bajinya, from north London; Charles Munyaneza, from Bedford; Celestin Ugirashebuja from Essex; and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, of Manchester.
“ This decision demonstrates to the Rwandan people that the suspected killers of their families can walk free with impunity ”
Dr James Smith of the Aegis Trust
The men are accused of killing, or conspiring with or aiding and abetting others, to kill members of the Tutsi ethnic group "with the intent to destroy in whole, or in part, that group".
Mr Munyaneza, Mr Ugirashebuja and Mr Nteziryayo were said to be mayors of local communes who allegedly organised killings in their areas while Dr Bajinya was allegedly a militia organiser in Kigali.
At an extradition hearing in 2007, a court heard allegations that Dr Bajinya, who changed his name to Vincent Brown when he became a British citizen, had been part of the "inner circle" of then Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana.
After the president died in a plane crash in 1994 Dr Bajinya - a former member of the Rwandan governing MRND party - was claimed to have attended key "genocide meetings" where plans to murder hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were planned.
The court was told Dr Bajinya then went on to become a leader in the Interahamwe militia, which was to spearhead the slaughter.
Court papers alleged he ordered the militia to cut a suspected Tutsi "into pieces so that he would not recover".
Dr Bajinya is also accused of personally interrogating a Tutsi woman about where her fellow "inyenzi" - or cockroaches - were before a militia man shot her dead.
Appeal refused
Lord Justice Laws and Lord Justice Sullivan, sitting at London's High Court, allowed the appeals by Dr Bajinya and his three co-defendants against the extradition ruling by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith because, the judges said, there was evidence that defence witnesses in Rwanda were afraid to give evidence in the men's favour.
The judges added: "We conclude that if (the four) were extradited to face trial in the High Court of Rwanda, the appellants would suffer a real risk of a flagrant denial of justice by reason of their likely inability to adduce the evidence of supporting witnesses."
The judges also ruled there was a real risk "of executive (government) interference with the judiciary" in Rwanda.
They refused the Rwandan government, represented by the Crown Prosecution Service, permission to appeal to the House of Lords against their ruling.
The judges' decision is thought to be the first time an English court has ever blocked an extradition request from a foreign government on the grounds that it would violate Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which safeguards the right to a fair trial.
Lord Justice Laws described it as "an important and anxious case". Lord Gifford QC, who had appeared for Mr Munyaneza, said the case had revealed "an emerging international consensus that there is no fair trial in Rwanda".
'Legal loophole'
However there was criticism that a legal loophole had allowed four suspected mass murderers to walk free.
Dr James Smith of the Aegis Trust, which campaigns against genocide told the BBC that the UK government should change the law to allow British courts to prosecute crimes against humanity.
He said: "If the High Court is unable to allow extradition because the legal system in other countries does not meet its high standards, then the government should revise and amend legislation to allow proceedings in this country.
"As it stands this decision demonstrates to the Rwandan people that the suspected killers of their families can walk free with impunity in Europe."
Frank Brazell, a solicitor representing Vincent Brown aka Dr Bajinya, welcomed the judges' ruling, saying: "We are hugely pleased with the result.
"The central issue they have found is that there is clearly no prospect of these men having a fair trial in Rwanda.
"The primary reason is the likelihood of political interference affecting the approach taken by the judges of Rwanda to a case of this kind.
"Obviously this is linked to interference with witnesses and the inability to call defence witnesses because of government or judicial interference."
He said Mr Brown, a British national and qualified doctor who had worked for a charity training nurses, would soon be released from custody.
He has been held since 28 December 2006. Asked if Mr Brown would now seek compensation, Mr Brazell said the issue would be discussed in due course.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/7989534.stm
Published: 2009/04/08 15:37:50 GMT
© BBC MMIX
The dictator Kagame at UN
Dictators like Kagame who have changed their national constitutions to remain indefinitely on power should not be involved in UN high level and global activities including chairing UN meetings
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Thousands of Hutu murdered by Kagame inside Rwanda, e.g. Kibeho massacres
Kagame killed 200,000 Hutus from all regions of the country, the elderly and children who were left by their relatives, the disabled were burned alive. Other thousands of people were killed in several camps of displaced persons including Kibeho camp. All these war crimes remain unpunished.The British news reporters were accompanying Kagame’s fighters on day-by-day basis and witnessed these massacres, but they never reported on this.
25,000 Hutu bodies floated down River Akagera into Lake Victoria in Uganda.
The British irrational, extremist, partisan,biased, one-sided media and politicians have disregarded Kagame war crimes e.g. the Kibeho camp massacres, massacres of innocents Hutu refugees in DR. Congo. The British media have been supporting Kagame since he invaded Rwanda by organising the propaganda against the French over the Rwandan genocide, suppressing the truth about the genocide and promoting the impunity of Kagame and his cronies in the African Great Lakes Region. For the British, Rwanda does not need democracy, Rwanda is the African Israel; and Kagame and his guerilla fighters are heroes.The extremist British news reporters including Fergal Keane, Chris Simpson, Chris McGreal, Mark Doyle, etc. continue to hate the Hutus communities and to polarise the Rwandan society.
Kagame political ambitions triggered the genocide.
Kagame’s guerrilla war was aimed at accessing to power at any cost. He rejected all attempts and advice that could stop his military adventures including the cease-fire, political negotiations and cohabitation, and UN peacekeeping interventions. He ignored all warnings that could have helped him to manage the war without tragic consequences. Either you supported Kagame’ s wars and you are now his friend, or you were against his wars and you are his enemy. Therefore, Kagame as the Rwandan strong man now, you have to apologise to him for having been against his war and condemned his war crimes, or accept to be labelled as having been involved in the genocide. All key Kagame’s fighters who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity are the ones who hold key positions in Rwandan army and government for the last 15 years. They continue to be supported and advised by the British including Tony Blair, Andrew Mitchell MP, and the British army senior officials.
Aid that kills: The British Budget Support financed Museveni and Kagame’s wars in Rwanda and DRC.
Genocide propaganda and fabrications are used by the so-called British scholars, news reporters and investigative journalists to promote their CVs and to get income out of the genocide through the selling of their books, providing testimonies against the French, access to consultancy contracts from the UN and Kagame, and participation in conferences and lectures in Rwanda, UK and internationally about genocide. Genocide propaganda has become a lucrative business for Kagame and the British. Anyone who condemned or did not support Kagame’s war is now in jail in Rwanda under the gacaca courts system suuported by British tax payer's money, or his/she is on arrest warrant if he/she managed to flee the Kagame’s regime. Others have fled the country and are still fleeing now. Many others Rwandans are being persecuted in their own country. Kagame is waiting indefinitely for the apologies from other players who warn him or who wanted to help to ensure that political negotiations take place between Kagame and the former government he was fighting against. Britain continues to supply foreign aid to Kagame and his cronies with media reports highlighting economic successes of Rwanda. Such reports are flawed and are aimed at misleading the British public to justify the use of British taxpayers’ money. Kagame and his cronies continue to milk British taxpayers’ money under the British budget support. This started from 1986 through the British budget support to Uganda until now.
Dictator Kagame: No remorse for his unwise actions and ambitions that led to the Rwandan genocide.
No apologies yet to the Rwandan people. The assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana by Kagame was the only gateway for Kagame to access power in Rwanda. The British media, politicians, and the so-called British scholars took the role of obstructing the search for the truth and justice; and of denying this assassination on behalf of General Kagame. General Paul Kagame has been obliging the whole world to apologise for his mistakes and war crimes. The UK’s way to apologise has been pumping massive aid into Rwanda's crony government and parliement; and supporting Kagame though media campaigns.
Fanatical, partisan, suspicious, childish and fawning relations between UK and Kagame
Kagame receives the British massive aid through the budget support, British excessive consultancy, sector wide programmes, the Tutsi-dominated parliament, British and Tutsi-owned NGOs; for political, economic and English language expansion to Rwanda. The British aid to Rwanda is not for all Rwandans. It is for Kagame himself and his Tutsi cronies.
Paul Kagame' actvities as former rebel
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