{"id":2038,"date":"2010-06-07T13:26:32","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T21:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2022-09-15T17:36:54","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T01:36:54","slug":"politically-motivated-rwandan-judge-jails-professor-erlinder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2038\/politically-motivated-rwandan-judge-jails-professor-erlinder\/","title":{"rendered":"Politically Motivated: Rwandan Judge Jails US Professor"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Peter Erlinder speaking on 22 May 2010 in Brussels<\/a> from ICTR Legacy<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Ann Garrison<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

June 7, 2010<\/p>\n

Minnesota Law Professor and international criminal lawyer Peter Erlinder is back in jail in Kigali, Rwanda, where he was arrested May 28th. A Rwandan judge denied him bail on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Erlinder’s friends, family, and supporters had awaited the decision all weekend. Some responded in shock; others called the ruling predictable because Erlinder’s critique of the received history of the Rwanda Genocide<\/a>, the Congo War, and U.S. and U.K. involvement, threatens too many powerful people.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota law professor traveled to Rwanda to defend embattled presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza<\/a> against what he called trumped up charges, including “genocide ideology,” a speech crime unique to Rwanda which he is now accused of as well.<\/p>\n

Just before flying there, Erlinder spoke about what he considered distortions in the received history of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and its aftermath, at the Second International Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Conference in Brussels, Belgium.<\/p>\n

The Rwandan News Agency reported the judge’s ruling on Monday afternoon in Kigali. Judge Morris Mbishibishi, who handed down the ruling, is the same Gasabo Intermediate Court judge who, on Friday, postponed ruling until today.<\/p>\n

FDU-Inkingi Party<\/strong><\/p>\n

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, presidential candidate of Rwanda’s FDU-Inkingi Party, whom Peter Erlnder flew to Rwanda to defend against charges he is now facing himself. She has been warned that she will be arrested again if she continues to speak to the press.<\/p>\n

KPFA Radio News reported on the case, and the pending decision on Sunday, June 6th.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department has called for Erlinder’s release on humanitarian grounds, but not because he has a right to freedom of speech, as Professor Erlinder and his lawyers have insisted. Freedom of speech is a right guaranteed to Commonwealth countries, and Rwanda became a member of the Commonwealth in November 2009.<\/p>\n

Erlinder is also a U.S. citizen in a nation, Rwanda, supported with hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S.assistance annually. Many of his supporters have thus argued that the U.S. State Department could and should, as a donor nation, insist on his release. Others have said that the State Department is not likely to want to see Professor Erlinder released because, if he is, he will most likely continue to criticize its recent history and that of the Pentagon in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

Erlinder’s American lawyer Kurt Kerns<\/a> said, “We lost and obviously we’re gravely disappointed. We’re working on the best appeal we can right now.”<\/p>\n

Erlinder’s defense team includes two Kenyan lawyers, and one Rwandan.<\/p>\n

Erlinder will be eligible to appeal in five days according to Rwanda News Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Rwandan judge denied him bail on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Erlinder’s friends, family, and supporters had awaited the decision all weekend. Some responded in shock; others called the ruling predictable because Erlinder’s critique of the received history of the Rwanda Genocide, the Congo War, and U.S. and U.K. involvement, threatens too many powerful people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitically Motivated: Rwandan Judge Jails US Professor - Fog City Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2038\/politically-motivated-rwandan-judge-jails-professor-erlinder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Politically Motivated: Rwandan Judge Jails US Professor - Fog City Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Rwandan judge denied him bail on Monday afternoon. 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