Arusha, July 29th, 2004 (FH) - A former judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Judge Lloyd George Williams told the Kenyan, East African weekly recently that “the incessant defence motions raised during the trials have crippled the ICTR”

During the interview, the former ICTR Judge acknowledged that the tribunal was making progress at the moment with an increased number of trials which he attributed to the arrival of ad-litem judges. Ad-litem judges are part-time judges who work along with the permanent judges at the tribunal to help increase the pace of the trials.

He however noted that the way in which chief-examination and cross-examination of witnesses is conducted at the tribunal “takes a tremendous amount of time”.

One of the problems he observed is that of the defence counsels, whom he said, "have not been helpful in getting the process moving, they have had endless motions, some with and some without merit, thus slowing down the process”.

Judge Williams who has been a lawyer since 1959 said that many motions were filed by the defence counsels because they were paid for them. “For every motion the defence files, they get paid for it”.

“The prosecution is made up of salaried staff paid by ICTR, they do not have much to gain by piling up motions and they don't have any particular interest in filing unnecessary motions”, he said.

The former Judge said that during his tenure, he proposed an amendment which was adopted regarding non payment of the lawyers’ fees or costs when they raised motions which were “frivolous or an abuse of the court process”. He continued that although the amendment helped, some lawyers kept on filing the motions no matter what you do, “some of which are quite repetitive”.

He however said that the competency of both the prosecution and the defense lawyers was fifty-fifty. “Some people are good at it and some are not good. You get a mixed choice”, he said.

Judge Williams (77) became a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in November 1998 and was re-elected in January 2003 for another four-year term but he resigned in April, 2004 citing “health reasons” caused by “stress and pressure”.

Prior to his resignation, he adjudicated the trials involving the former mayor of Bicumbi, (Kigali Rural) Laurent Semanza who was found guilty and convicted to 25 years imprisonment, and the Cyangugu trial in which the former transport minister Andre Ntagerura, former governor of Cyangugu, Emmanuel Bagambiki, and Lieutenant Samuel Imanishimwe were tried together.

Ntagerura and Bagambiki were acquitted in the trial and Imanishimwe was handed a 27-year sentence. He was also involved in the “Military One” trial involving four former Military officials. Judge Williams said he took on all the trials at the same time to try and “get the process moving” but he resigned because he could not do the job half-heartedly.

Judge Williams was replaced by Judge Charles Michael Dennis Byron also from St. Kitts and Nevis who was sworn-in June 23, 2004.

SV/KN/FH (JG’’0729E)