UK 'could try Rwandan suspects'

Four men battling to halt extradition to Rwanda on mass murder charges could be tried in the UK, a court has heard.

All four are wanted in connection with the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed in 100 days.

Dr Vincent Brown, Charles Munyaneza, Celestin Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo deny the charges.

In June, district judge Anthony Evans ruled they could be expelled, but Alun Jones QC told the High Court they would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda.

"They could be prosecuted here for genocide," Mr Jones, acting for Dr Brown, told the court.

The Rwandans have been in custody since December 2006 following an extradition request from their home country.

The men, who were local government officials at the time of the genocide, face charges including genocide and crimes against humanity.

'International consensus'

A month after Judge Evans' decision, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ordered their removal.

But Mr Jones said his client - formerly known as Vincent Bajinya - and the co-accused would face difficulties finding witnesses for their defence in Rwanda.

He added that they faced life imprisonment in solitary confinement, in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Thirty people have been convicted of involvement in the killings at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which is based in neighbouring Tanzania.

Until last year, a number of European nations were reluctant to extradite Rwandan genocide suspects because they would have faced the death penalty if they had been convicted.

The Rwandan government has now scrapped the death penalty, opening up the way for extraditions.

However, Mr Jones said that the ICTR had refused to return individuals in four other cases.

These rulings had been followed by courts in Germany and France, he added, and it would be "a curious and stark result" for the UK to go against "a clearly emerging international consensus".

Violence erupted in the African country in 1994 after the Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down and ethnic Tutsi rebels were blamed.

As soon as the president's death was announced, killing squads began attacking Tutsis and moderate Hutus across the country.

The hearing continues.

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