UN Rwanda genocide court to keep acquitted suspects with nowhere to go News
UN Rwanda genocide court to keep acquitted suspects with nowhere to go

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] is keeping 4 acquitted genocide suspects in custody because no other countries were willing to accept them, the court announced Friday. The suspects acquitted by the court cannot return to Rwanda [JURIST news archive] or stay in Tanzania, which hosts the tribunal, so must find an alternative place to settle. The ICTR has convicted 26 and acquitted five people since its creation in 1997.

Everard O'Donnell, the court's acting deputy registrar, told Reuters, "When we acquit people we don't seem to find the same enthusiastic assistance from the international community…Somehow, the fact that they have been indicted haunts them for the rest of their existence. You can't get more innocent than seven or eight judges telling the world that they are innocent." Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emporer

On December 25, 800 A.D., Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome, Italy. During his lifetime, Charlemagne united most of Western Europe for the first time since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He is credited with spreading the rule of law throughout his dominions as well as starting the French and German monarchies.

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