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Kigali – Following advice from the United Nations’ Office of Legal Affairs, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday 15th June urged Rwandan authorities to immediately release Prof. Peter Erlinder, a US lawyer accused of supporting “genocide ideology”.

The United Nations’ Office of Legal Affairs “advised the ICTR to formally assert immunity for Professor Erlinder without delay and request his immediate release accordingly.

The ICTR hereby notifies the Rwandan authorities that Professor Erlinder enjoys immunity and requests therefore, his immediate release,” writes the Tanzania-based court.

Here is the ICTR letter to the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation:

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Tribunal P�nal International pour le Rwanda

Arusha International Conf�rence Centre

P.O.Box 6016, Arusha, Tanzania – B.P. 6016, Arusha, Tanzanie

Tel: 255 27 2564207-11 2564367-72 or 1 212 963 2850 Fax: 255 27 2564000/4373 or 1 212 963 2848/49

Office of the Registrar Cabinet du Greffier

ICTR/RO/06/10/175

NOTE VERBALE

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) presents its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Government of Rwanda and has the honour to refer to its previous Note Verbales of 31 May 2010, 9 and 10 June 2010 as well as the response from Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga of 2 June 2010 concerning the arrest in Kigali, on 28 May 2010, of Professor Peter Erlinder on allegations of genocide denial. Professor Erlinder is an American lawyer in charge of the defence of Mayor Aloys Ntabakuze before the ICTR.

Following the arrest of Professor Erlinder, the ICTR sought clarification from the Rwandan authorities on the motives of this arrest through its Note Verbale of 31 May 2010. This request drew from the need for the ICTR to ascertain the applicability of any immunity or privilege which Defence Counsel assigned to cases before this Tribunal enjoy in the context of their mandate.

In his response, Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga indicated that Professor Erlinder’s arrest was “not at all related to his assignments at the ICTR”.

Having subsequently learned that Professor Blinder underwent a hearing before the High Court of Gasabo, the Tribunal requested, on 9 June, the Rwandan authorities to provide a formal copy of the charges leveled against Professor Erlinder. On 10 June, the ICTR transmitted another Note Verbale to the same end in compliance with an order of the Appeals Chamber sitting in the case of Mayor Ntabakuze. The Chambers’ decision was attached to that Note Verbale.

In the meantime, the ICTR received the decision on the bail hearing for the Erlinder’s case held on 7 June 2010 before the High Court of Gasabo. The ICTR notes that the Prosecution appearing before the High Court made specific references to words Professor Erlinder spoke and statements he made in his case before the ICTR. Excerpts of those submissions read as follows: “Carl Peter Erlinder denied and minimized the genocide by stating that the soldiers he was defending neither planned nor carried out the genocide. The Accused affirmed that his clients were rather defending national integrity. Prosecution Counsel submitted that the Accused did not end there, as he denied and minimized the genocide in other cases” [...] “While he was Defence Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Carl Peter Erlinder submitted that what happened was a massacre of members of the population” [...] “the Accused considers the genocide as a war and, even in the Military I case, he submitted that the killings committed against the Tutsi in 1994 did not constitute genocide. He further states that in Rwanda, this issue is being used as a hurdle against those who want to challenge Kagame during the 2010 elections”.

Although no formal copy of the charges brought against Professor Erlinder has been received yet, the ICTR takes the view that the decision of the High Court constitutes a sufficient basis to identify a link between the nature of the accusations against Professor Erlinder and his mandate with this Tribunal.

The ICTR recalls that Article VI, Section 22, of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, to which the Republic of Rwanda is a party, provides that: “experts (other than officials coming within the scope of Article V) performing missions for the United Nations shall be accorded [...] in particular [...] [i]n respect of words spoken or written and acts done by them in the course of their performance of their mission, immunity from legal process of every kind. The immunity from legal process shall continue to be accorded notwithstanding that the persons concerned are no longer employed in the mission for the United Nations.”

Under the circumstances, the ICTR seized the Office of Legal Affairs in the United Nations Secretariat in New York which is ultimately responsible for providing advice on immunity related matters. In light of the above, the Office of Legal Affairs advised the ICTR to formally assert immunity for Professor Erlinder without delay and request his immediate release accordingly.

The ICTR hereby notifies the Rwandan authorities that Professor Erlinder enjoys immunity and requests therefore, his immediate release.

The ICTR avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Esteemed Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Republic of Rwanda the assurances of its highest consideration.

Arusha,15 June 2010

Copies:

• Honorable Martin Ngoga, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Rwanda
  Office of the Prosecutor-General, Kigali, Republic of Rwanda
• His Excellency, Honorable Tharcisse Karugarama, Minister of Justice Kigali, Republic of Rwanda

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Coop�ration
Attention: Her Excellency, Honorable Louise Mushikiwabo
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Kigali, Republic of Rwanda

With water and toilet paper at hand, Erlinder consults with the lawyer on his way back to the Kigali Central Prison, known in Rwanda as �1930�, awaiting his bail verdict

Kigali – Citing depression, attempted suicide, a previously-unreported hospital visit and poor health, American law professor and accused Tutsi Genocide denier Peter Erlinder recanted all his publications in a desperate appeal for bail Monday in the High Court.

�I do want to clear my name, but I want to clear my name in a way that allows me to be healthy, that allows me to be mentally clear, that allows me to respond in ways that I will not be able to respond if I don’t get the medical treatment that I need now,� he said in the Nyamirambo High Court.

Erlinder was wearing pink prison robes and a short haircut, both new since his public appearance last Monday when he was denied bail. He was arrested 17 days ago in Kigali for allegedly denying the 1994 Tutsi Genocide.

Since then, Rwandan media had only announced two hospital visits. The first was on May 31, when Erlinder experienced what he described in court today as a panic attack caused from stress and high blood pressure, which felt to him like a heart attack.

His second trip to hospital was the morning of June 02, when police found him partly unconscious in his cell. Even Kennedy Ogetto, one of Erlinder’s Kenyan lawyers, told BBC Kinyarwanda the next day he could not confirm the news as had not been able to consult with his client.

�Your honour, I lost all hope to live,� Erlinder revealed in today’s nine-hour court session. �That is the product of the depression I’ve been struggling with for 25 years.�

The third hospital visit, unreported until now, happened after Erlinder was denied bail last week.

�On the Monday of the court proceedings a week ago I couldn’t hear what was going on in court,� he explained to Judge Johnson Busingye. �In the detention facility … it simply is noisy. In addition, there are no screens and no mosquito nets and I was sleeping on the floor for more than a week without a blanket. In order to try and get some sleep, I tried to use what I could to block out the noise and prevent mosquitoes from getting into my ears.�

Erlinder said he put tissue papers and cotton into his ears, but he pushed them in too far and couldn’t remove them until prison staff brought him to King Faisal hospital two days later. He said the problem is now solved for good, as the American embassy, which already supplies him with food, brought him plastic earplugs.

While Erlinder and his lawyers appealed to the judge that he should be released on humanitarian grounds until the Genocide denial hearing begins, the prosecution rebutted, calling him �incorrigible.�

�Releasing him would be sad and tantamount to granting him a blank cheque to continue denying that over one million innocent Rwandan Tutsi citizens of this country were butchered in a grand and organized Genocide not seen anywhere on Earth before 1994,� prosecutor Jean Bosco Mutangana, told the judge.

Erlinder prepares a response while prosecutor Jean Bosco Mutangana explains why he should be denied bail

Erlinder, 62, is a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minneapolis in the United States and he works as lead defence counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

His defence has led to the acquittal of top Genocide suspects, and he recently filed a suit against President Paul Kagame in America on behalf of the widows of dead Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira. Erlinder alleges that President Kagame, Rwanda’s current leader, is responsible for the assassinations which sparked the 100-day Tutsi Genocide.

Erlinder’s defence team handed the judge documents, forwarded by United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton, from three American medical clinics outlining his health conditions and recommending he return to the United States for medical monitoring.

�You also had my recantation,� Erlinder concluded to a silent courthouse. �Since the court has my admissions of recantation and mental illness, I’m not sure what value it would be to have me come back, but I’m pleased to come back.�

�If for some reason I were to misrepresent this to the court here, the court could seek my dismissal from the ICTR and disciplinary proceedings back in the United States.�

The court session started at 8:45am (0645GMT), but there had to be an immediate hour adjournment as Erlinder said the prosecution had not granted him timely access to crucial documents. Court went into recess again for lunch after four hours of presenting submissions.

The afternoon session dragged four more hours as Erlinder pleaded to be released and the prosecutor Mutangana demanded he be maintained in jail for 30 days as the state prepares his charge sheet.

The high court judge will decide whether to grant bail to the controversial lawyer on Thursday at 3 p.m. in Kigali.

[ARI-RNA]

This video is a recap of how the world has been making a murderer like Kagame a hero, forgetting that more than 7 million people’s blood is on his head plus plundering of DRC resources.
It is a shame that people we look up for spiritual like Pr. Rick Warren are part of this scheme of prasing a murderer who invaded an independent nation causing a retaliation which saw innocent people losing their lives…

Police escorted Erlinder back into custody

Kigali: Peter Erlinder, the American lawyer arrested in Rwanda on Genocide denial charges, was handcuffed by police as the judge remanded him to 30 days of detention to allow for continued investigations and subsequent trial.

The accused has five days to appeal the decision but his client, presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire, may enlist the services of somebody else.

Ingabire had hired Erlinder to defend her against Rwanda’s criminal charges of Genocide ideology, minimizing the Genocide, divisionism, and collaboration with a terrorist group. Erlinder is lead defence counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR), and in April he filed suit in America’s state of Oklahoma against President Paul Kagame for allegedly shooting down President Habyarimana’s plane, igniting Rwanda’s genocide.

Erlinder arrived in Kigali on May 24 and was arrested by Rwandan police on May 28, charged with genocide denial.

�On our part, we thought on medical grounds at least he would be released, at least on some conditions,� said Kenyan defence lawyer Gershom Otachi.

Ten days of arrest have proved detrimental to Erlinder’s physical well-being. He visited hospital twice, first because of high blood pressure and second for what police say was a suicide attempt. In court on Friday, Erlinder’s lawyers asked for him to be released so he could get adequate treatment.

Judge Maurice Mbishibishi, who is also handling Ingabire’s case, took the weekend to deliberate and gave the verdict Monday during sunset at Gasabo Intermediate Court, surrounded by maize fields 25 kilometres outside of Kigali. Mbishibishi sided with the prosecution, which had asked for Erlinder to remain detained.

The judge said that Erlinder’s lawyers have not shown a link between his sickness and being in detention, their main argument for bail.

Gaunt and unshaved, Erlinder received the news with his hand over his eyes. Police came, handcuffed him, and escorted him back to a cell.

Erlinder was represented by four lawyers including American Kurt Kerns, two Kenyans and a Rwandan. In addition, the Rwanda Bar had lined up five lawyers to advise the defense team.

�We’ll try to appeal, maybe,� lawyer Otachi said. �At this stage, I really cannot tell.�

Outspoken opposition critic Victoire Ingabire, whom Erlinder hasn’t had the chance to defend since arriving, was not surprised.

�The justice in Rwanda is not independent,� she said. �I am really worrying if the U.S. government will not do anything, that Peter (Erlinder) can stay in jail in Rwanda. But he’s innocent and everybody knows that he’s innocent.�

These sentiments also describe how Ingabire feels about her own charges. She’s stalled waiting for Erlinder to represent her, but that may not last.

�I am thinking to take another lawyer,� she said. �I will see who can take the place of Peter. But first I would like to see what will happen to Peter.�

The American’s lawyers say they are going to appeal the bail decision in Rwanda’s High Court.

[ARI-RNA]

Peter Erlinder in court and his Kenyan lawyer, Kennedy Ogetto.

The St. Paul professor, Peter Erlinder, will remain in custody while being investigated by Rwandan officials, who promise that his health needs will be met.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Monday that she is asking for an expedited appeal in the case of Peter Erlinder, the St. Paul law professor who has been held in Rwandan custody since late last month.

The 62-year-old attorney appeared in court Monday and was denied bail while Rwandan officials investigate charges that he denied the country’s 1994 genocide and published articles that they say threaten the nation’s security. Erlinder pleaded not guilty on Friday.

“I am deeply disappointed that Rwandan authorities have decided to unnecessarily prolong Professor Erlinder’s detention and believe this decision should be reconsidered as soon as possible,” Klobuchar said Monday. The senator said she will contact government officials to urge an expedited appeal and “to convey my strong belief that he should be released.”

After the hearing where his bail request was rejected, Erlinder was transferred from the jail where he had been staying in for the past week to a general prison in Kigali.

Erlinder could be imprisoned for another month until his appeal is heard.

News that bail had been denied came as a blow to Erlinder’s family members, who gathered at his home in St. Paul to await the judge’s decision. Erlinder’s wife, Masako Usui, and his brother, Scott Erlinder, along with area supporters, received a brief e-mail update from Erlinder’s legal team in Kigali mid-morning.

“We’re disappointed that Pete won’t be released from jail or granted bail,” Scott Erlinder told reporters. “He’s expressed his willingness to cooperate by any condition imposed by the court of Rwanda, and we feel he should be released immediately. His family members are extremely concerned for health and his safety.”

In Monday’s hearing, a Rwandan judge rejected Erlinder’s argument that his physical and mental health would be jeopardized by continued imprisonment. Instead, the judge sided with the prosecution’s request to detain Erlinder during the investigation.

‘An act of justice’
In a statement that implied the government may not relent, Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said: “The prosecution of Peter Erlinder is not a political tactic. It is an act of justice. Revisionists and ideologues who traffic in genocide denial will be prosecuted and imprisoned.”

Erlinder’s lawyers argued at a Friday hearing that his health could deteriorate if he remained in prison, and asked that he be returned to the United States for medical treatment. Erlinder has said he suffers from depression and high blood pressure.

Mushikiwabo said Erlinder would be given all necessary medical support he requires. “His family should rest assured that he is being kept in humane and safe conditions,” Mushikiwabo said.

Erlinder entered Rwanda on May 23 to represent opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire, who also has been charged with promoting “genocide ideology.”

A law professor at William Mitchell College of Law, Erlinder has called Rwandan President Paul Kagame a war criminal and said Kagame is partly to blame for the genocide that killed more than 800,000 Rwandans in the space of several months.

The slaughter was born of a long-standing conflict between Rwanda’s two major tribes, the Hutu and the Tutsi. The Hutus were in the majority at the time. Most of those killed were Tutsi rebels. Kagame was the leader of the Tutsi’s Rwandan Patriotic Front, which ousted the Hutus from power and effectively ended the genocide.

In April, Erlinder helped file a wrongful death lawsuit against Kagame that was filed in federal court in Oklahoma, where Kagame has ties to a university.

Erlinder leads a group of defense attorneys for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is trying alleged leaders of the Rwanda genocide.

Since his arrest, Erlinder has been hospitalized twice, first after complaining of fever and dizziness and then when he swallowed a nonlethal dose of prescription pills in his cell. Rwandan police called it a suicide attempt, but his family said it was a strategy to escape the poor conditions of his jail cell for a hospital.

By late last week, international pressure had begun to mount and the U.S. State Department called for Erlinder’s release on compassionate grounds, without defending his actions.

Source: Star Tribune

Peter Erlinder in court and his Kenyan lawyer, Kennedy Ogetto.

Kigali � The American lawyer Peter Erlinder, appeared in court for the preliminary hearing late Friday. He was charged with denying and minimizing the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and publishing articles that threaten the country’s security. He pleaded not guilty to all charges levelled against him during the five-hour court hearing.

Erlinder had come in the country to represent Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza in her case which also involves genocide denial. Ingabire was also in court Friday to attend Erlinder’s hearing.

Draped in a long overcoat, Prof. Erlinder was flanked by a team of 9 legal representatives: his own four lawyers (an American, two Kenyans and a Rwandan) and five lawyers appointed by the Rwandan Bar Association.

The Prosecutor argued that Erlinder�s case is a serious one and there is strong evidence to back up the accusations ranging from his publications and utterances where he continuously and explicitly minimises and denies the Genocide. The accused also refers to President Paul Kagame as a genocidaire who downed the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, thereby triggering the Genocide. He added that Erlinder intentionally preaches that the Genocide was not planned.

Prof Erlinder told the court that he was not aware that his publications back in America could be tantamount to Genocide denial.
“It is the first time I have come to know that my obscure publications back in America were that bad and could amount to genocide denial,” Erlinder told the court.
He said that it may be a case of misinterpretation or misunderstanding.

He said President Kagame’s party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, might dispute his writings, but “not all Rwandans.”

Prof. Erlinder said he had ignored warnings from his tribunal colleagues not to travel to Rwanda, where he had spent several days helping opposition leader Victoire Ingabire in her presidential election challenge before his May 28 arrest. He told the court that by travelling to Rwanda he was not aware that his past publications and speeches would get him into trouble with the Rwandan government.
“I believed the country has grown democratically, but if I am detained and prosecuted, my case will be confirm what is being said out there,” Erlinder said.

Appearing weak in court, Erlinder said that he has trust in the country�s institutions but his worry was his ill health. He said he was too old and too weak to stay in jail. He pleaded with Judge Maurice Mbishibishi to conditionally release him and allow him to travel back to the United States for appropriate treatment as his health is deteriorating. He promised to comply with any conditions the court sets and insisted he would cooperate with the court to interpret his writings, but would do so out of jail.

The prosecution insisted Erlinder should be provisionally detained as investigations into his case continue. �As prosecution, we have strong reasons to ask for his provisional detention because we see it as the only means to protect the accused as investigations into his case continue,� said Prosecutor Richard Muhumuza. �This way, he can always be available when prosecution needs him, and it is also to ensure that the accused doesn�t escape,� he said.

But Erlinder and his defence team argued that the accused is ready to cooperate and play by the rules the court will set, as long as he is allowed to access treatment.

He said he has not been mistreated during his time in jail and confirmed that doctors were there for him all the time, but also had not had contact with anyone while in Rwandan custody.
He added that he could not stay in jail anymore.
“I haven’t talked to anyone in my family, I haven’t listened to the radio or watched TV since I was arrested. I haven’t talked to my doctor,” he said.

As the focus shifted to the health of Erlinder, Prosecutor Richard Muhumuza, who is also handling the Ingabire case, argued against release on bail, but agreed not to object if a medical examination determined Erlinder needed treatment in the United States.

Prof. Erlinder who is undergoing an emotional and psychological breakdown, was upset and almost decided not to leave the courtroom when the judge Maurice Mbishibishi, who is also handling Ingabire case, pronounced that bail would be decided on Monday, meaning that he still has to spend at least another weekend in custody.

If convicted, Prof. Erlinder faces up to 25 years in prison.

The hearing continues on Monday.

Related:
Rwanda will not bow to pressure to release American lawyer Peter Erlinder

by Keith Harmon Snow.

A Small Victory For Freedom, A Great Loss To The World

Two pieces of news today to share with my brothers and sisters who are working for peace and reconciliation and truth and equality and love and dignity and hope and healing.

First, we won our court case today in Chicago — in which I was an expert witness testifying for the defense — and the Rwandan asylum seekers (2 adults and 3 minors) were awarded asylum status after more than 5 years in the immigration hearings process.

These (adults) are Rwanda genocide survivors, and they are Hutu people, and they also survived the RPF perpetrated genocide against Hutu people in Zaire.

The lawyer did an amazing job, and the defendants showed incredible graciousness in the face of huge injustices.

If Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame knew how to eat humble pie, today would be the day. Sadly, he’s one of the worst examples of a human being ever created, only outdone, perhaps, by those governments and people who support him.

Second, one of the world’s greatest human rights champions, was assassinated this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I and other human rights defenders are calling for a thorough independent investigation into the assassination of Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, executive director of Voix des Sans Voix (VSV) (i.e. Voice of the Voiceless), one of Congo’s largest human rights groups (whom I believe I met and interviewed in 2006).

So, very happy news and very sad news.

Today, it was very interesting to see how the Judge and U.S. Government prosecutor handled me and my testimony, which pretty much contradicted everything the U.S. Government prosecutor had submitted as evidence, and according to the prosecutor’s cross-examination, based on his reviewing my resume on my web site, I am not entitled to be a substitute school teacher (1996?) or be caretaker of a place called EARTHLANDS (1995), and still call myself a journalist and human rights investigator, which I did at the same time.

Most outrageous are all the distortions, mischaracterizations and outright lies submitted in the annual U.S. Department of State Human Rights Country Reports, and all the documents that support these, and all the documents that rely on them to make their own shoddy or vested-interest arguments, and the many media articles that all say the same thing, in platitudes, and cover up the state of criminality and terror in Rwanda (and Rwanda’s involvement in Congo) at present.

Clinton-Kagame: Birds of a fetaher flock together. When Clinton said we should have done more to stop genocide in Rwanda in 1994 he was obfuscating reality: we were militarily involved at the deepest levels.

I’ve looked very closely at these state department HUMAN RIGHTS COUNTRY REPORTS on Rwanda, beginning with 1993, and they are really a scandal of omissions, falsehoods, decontextualized facts, and standard establishment mythology — and what is even more outrageous are the way they laud and applaud the dictator Paul Kagame, the U.S. wonder boy of mass murder in Africa, and cover up his crimes, and this is more greatly appreciated in contradistiction to how the State Department reports characterize other countries and the leaders that stand up to the U.S., including Omar Bashir (Sudan), Raul Castro (Cuba), or Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe).

I’ve looked in detail at these State Department Human Rights Country Reports, and they are all a scandal. I suppose I will publish my analyses if i can find the energy and surmount the absence of financial support.

It was hugely satisfying to find that amongst the submissions of evidence the attorney for the respondents seeking asylum submitted was a recent article by San Francisco journalist Ann Garrison, who has been following the events in Rwanda closely and publishing furiously in independent print and radio, and works independently herself and deserves people’s financial support.

Ann has done amazing work to understand and communicate the truth, with little support as well.

Alas, it’s very pathetic to see the extent to which popular understanding of what happened in Rwanda or Congo or Sudan is so completely determined by the indoctrination of the mass media, and — as the U.S. Government prosecutor today attempted to characterize me — how anyone who doesn’t work for the New York Times or Newsweek or Time must be a conspiracy theorist, a crackpot or a social degenerate.
The possibility that working for these institutions means unacceptable moral compromise does not enter into people’s arrogant frames of mind, so twisted is the western addiction to our one indoctrination, under God, indivisible, with oil barons, and corruption, unto all.

The U.S. Government was watching this case, it was considered a very high profile case, all the way in Washington, and the legal community was watching it closely in Chicago.

In any case, the judge found in favor of the Rwandans for asylum. The U.S. Government prosecutor indicated to the defense attorney that he will appeal. If he does, the process will go on for a few more months, and by then more of the truth will be known, as the current regime in Rwanda fights tooth and nail to keep the lid on their own coffin, one they have built of the blood of the Congolese, Ugandan and Rwanda people, and with the help of the U.S. State Department, Britain, Canada and Israel.

When it comes to Central Africa, people have no idea how little they really understand, how much we all in the US, Canada and Europe are personally implicated and involved, and how much our help is needed.

Of course, the lawyer works pro bono on this case, as I did. Much thanks to the people who support my work in little and big ways. Much appreciation for expansiveness of mind of today’s judge, too.

love

keith harmon snow
Chicago, 3 June 2010

Washington – The State Department on Thursday called on the Rwandan government to release a jailed U.S. law professor. Peter Erlinder has been in custody since Friday on charges he denied the central African country’s 1994 genocide.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Thursday that U.S. officials were closely monitoring Erlinder’s situation and have been in touch with officials in Rwanda.

“We want to be sure that he is accorded all of his rights,” Crowley said. “We are pressing the Rwandan government to resolve this case quickly and would like to see him released on compassionate grounds.”

Erlinder, of St. Paul, Minn., was moved from a jail in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, to a hospital on Wednesday after what Rwandan officials said was an apparent suicide attempt.

However, the 62-year-old told consular officials that he took an overdose of his own prescription medication so that he would be sent from a squalid jail to a hospital. That message was conveyed from the consulate in Rwanda to his family, who said Thursday they understood his actions to be part of an effort to escape a jail cell where he feared for his safety and was staying with seven or eight other inmates.

“It was a strategy for him to get out of that jail,” said Gena Berglund, a legal assistant to Erlinder. “He told the consulate, ‘I couldn’t spend one more night in jail.”

Erlinder’s family traveled to Washington on Thursday to press for his release. They spoke with reporters on Thursday morning and were expected to meet with State Department officials later in the day.

Sarah Erlinder, Peter Erlinder’s daughter, said she was elated the State Department had called for her father’s release. She and other family members said earlier Thursday they thought a public call for his release would spur action from Rwanda, which is closely allied with the U.S. government and receives millions of dollars in aid.

“That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time,” she said. “It’s been such a roller coaster, good news and bad news coming at the same time.”

Family members, including Erlinder’s wife, Masako Usui, said they want him released as soon as possible because they fear for his health.

“I don’t know anything about his condition,” Usui said, noting he was on various medications.

Erlinder is a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul with a reputation for taking on difficult, often unpopular defendants and causes. A past president of the progressive National Lawyers Guild, he leads a group of defense lawyers at the U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The tribunal is trying the alleged leaders of the 1994 genocide.

The Rwandan government has accused him of violating the country’s laws which forbid minimizing the 1994 genocide in which more than 500,000 Rwandans, the vast majority of them ethnic Tutsis, were massacred by Hutus in 100 days. Erlinder has not contended that massive violence did not occur, but has said it’s inaccurate to blame just one side.

Erlinder was in Kigali to help with the legal defense of Victoire Ingabire, an opposition leader running against President Paul Kagame in Aug. 9 elections. Ingabire is accused of promoting genocidal ideology.

In late April, Erlinder helped file a lawsuit in Oklahoma that accused Rwanda’s current President, Paul Kagame, of ordering the 1994 deaths of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira, igniting the genocide.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the widows of the two presidents. The presidents were killed when their plane was shot down.

Erlinder has made the allegations before, citing tribunal documents and books by former tribunal prosecutors. Kagame’s government denies the accusations.

Source: Associated Press.

Kigali – Government is demanding that Mr. Kurt Kerns publicly appologise to the Rwanda National Police or the three lawyers to embattled Prof. Peter Erlinder are forced out of the country, Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga said.

Mr. Kerns is currently leading the three-man defense team of detained Erlinder. The others are Kenyan attorneys Kennedy Ogetto and Gershom Otachi � who have acquired accreditation for the defense of the embattled Erlinder.

Prosecutor General Ngoga told an impromptu press conference in the morning that Mr. Kerns was propagating information in the American media that Rwandan Police are �killers� who could even poison the detainee Erlinder.

Mr. Kerns must extend a public apology to the National Police or he could be barred from staying in the country along with his co-attorneys, according to Ngoga, at the press briefing in which no questions were allowed.

In one of the American newspapers, Mr. Kerns said Monday: “It’s a Rwandan jail, there are mosquitoes, not enough blankets, overcrowded conditions.”

He was commenting on the hospitalization of his client Mr. Erlinder. Mr. Kerns also described the case against his client as �ridiculously weak� and �pathetic�, to a US radio station.

Mr. Kurt Kerns is not new to trouble. He is one of the three lawyers with Prof. Erlinder who have filed a suit in US State of Oklahoma against President Kagame for the alleged assassination of the ex- Rwandan and Burundian presidents. Mr. Kerns is also the defense attorney of 83-year-old Genocide suspect Lazare Kobagaya, currently on trail on the state of Kansas.

RNA has not been able to secure comment from the defense team, but the BBC Kinyarwanda service reported Wednesday evening that Kennedy Ogetto � one of the Kenyan defense attorneys was shocked to be informed that Prof. Erlinder had been hospitalized over alleged suicide.

Police had told reporters at around mid-day that Mr. Erlinder had swallowed 50 tablets of three medications including Sertraline for depression, Metoprolol for hypertension and simvastatin for high blood pressure.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Dr. Daniel Nyamaswa, who also heads the newly built high-end Police hospital, said after the suicide attempt, the medication was removed from Erlinder and he will be taking the drugs from the doctors at King Faisal Hospital.

�I do not want to stay in prison anymore, I prefer to die,� said Erlinder to doctors, after making him vomit all the medications and recovering from the traumatic experience, according to ACP Dr. Nyamaswa.

However, attorney Ogetto told the BBC Kinyarwanda service that he had not been able to see their client by 1900hours. Apparently, when he met Erlinder in the morning, he was in normal health, and that doctors had requested he be allowed to rest for another 24hours to recover from the Monday hospitalization.

Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General Ngoga told the press that Erlinder is �retracting everything� that he has said about the Tutsi Genocide. �Part of what Erlinder is saying in our statements now is that he is retracting everything he has said with respect to the Genocide,� said Ngoga.

The country�s top prosecutor revealed that Erlinder had committed to leave the country immediately if he is released, and will never return except with an invitation from the authorities.

Ngoga said all these statements had been made in the presence of his lawyer, but it was not clear which of the three attorneys.

However, attorney Ogetto reportedly expressed shock at information he was getting from media reports such as RNA suggesting Erlinder was giving-in.

By press time, it was not clear if the defense had managed to meet Erlinder.

[ARI-RNA]

A source close to William Mitchell law Prof. Peter Erlinder said poor conditions in his cell might have triggered an illness.

By RANDY FURST, KEVIN DIAZ and PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune staff writers

The overseas ordeal of Peter Erlinder took another bizarre turn on Wednesday when Rwandan police claimed that the St. Paul law professor attempted suicide in his jail cell and made a confession, while a source close to Erlinder in Rwanda said it was not true.

“It is complete poppycock,” said the source in a telephone interview from Rwanda.

Erlinder was arrested Friday on allegations that he has denied the 1994 Rwanda genocide. He had traveled to the African nation to represent opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who herself has been charged with promoting “genocide ideology.”

The fast-changing developments on Wednesday had colleagues and relatives in the United States shaking their heads and arguing that Rwandan authorities were lying in an attempt to railroad Erlinder.

His daughter, Arizona attorney Sarah Erlinder, said the family does not believe her father tried to take his life. “I have no idea what the truth is,” she said, moments after meeting Washington staffers of Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who have tried to contact the Rwandan Embassy in the United States. “Knowing him, none of us believe that he would try to kill himself. It’s not him.”

Gena Berglund, Erlinder’s legal assistant, said Erlinder has never been suicidal. “He is a very strong, optimistic person,” she said.

Sarah Erlinder said her father, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law, carried medication for high-blood pressure and cholesterol, but that it may have been running low. Asked if he might have taken a non-lethal overdose to get out of jail and into medical treatment, she said, “It’s definitely possible … but we just don’t have any good information.”

Whatever happened, she said, the incident “makes us more concerned for his safety. It seems to be getting more critical by the day.”

U.S. Embassy officials visited Erlinder on Wednesday and said they remain in close contact with him while he’s in the hospital and in police custody. But a State Department spokesman said he couldn’t disclose any information about Erlinder’s hospitalization because of medical confidentiality.

Also Wednesday, Paul Rusesabagina, whose story was made famous in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” issued a statement calling for Erlinder’s release. “Professor Peter Erlinder was in Rwanda doing his job as a lawyer,” he said. “In a civil society, that is not grounds for arrest.”

Rwandan police said they found Erlinder slumped over in his jail cell on Wednesday morning. The police said he had swallowed 45 to 50 pills and told them he was attempting suicide. Authorities said they intervened before the pills could take effect and took Erlinder to a hospital.

But the source in Rwanda described Erlinder’s condition as “fine,” adding: “He is healthy … it is clear that he did not make a suicide attempt.” The source said Erlinder was taken to the hospital because he was feeling ill, perhaps from abysmal jail conditions. “He has a foam mattress on a dirty floor with no pillow and one sheet and no mosquito net.”

Erlinder was interrogated further by police Tuesday, and told them he’d committed no crimes, the source said. He told them, however, that if anything he said had violated the law, he would “revoke” the statement. The source said police wrongly took this to be a confession. Instead, the source said, throughout the interrogation, Erlinder’s reaction to allegations he committed a crime were “denial, denial, denial.”

Erlinder is not denying that mass killings occurred in Rwanda, says Bruce Nestor, a Minneapolis attorney and friend. But he has asserted the current Rwandan President Paul Kagame is complicitous in the slaughter.

Despite pressure from Erlinder’s family and associates, State Department officials declined to call for his release or question the circumstances of his incarceration or medical treatment. Instead, they said they “expect the Rwandan authorities will accord Mr. Erlinder due process in a timely and transparent manner.”

The State Department statement added: “We expect the Rwandan authorities to continue to take Mr. Erlinder’s health into consideration.”

Erlinder’s backers say this falls far short of the diplomatic pressure that could be exerted by the U.S. government, a close ally that provides hundreds of millions of dollars in annual foreign aid to Rwanda.

“The U.S. State Department could stop this in 30 seconds,” said Daniel Mayfield, a defense attorney who served on the board of the National Lawyers Guild with Erlinder. “One phone call … ”

Randy Furst � 612-673-7382 Kevin Diaz � 202-408-2753 Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.

Source: Star Tribune