Several of the witnesses in the case against a man accused of genocide in Rwanda have given conflicting explanations in different courts, according to Ny Tid.
Several of the witnesses in the case have been called into question. The man was in custody in Norway for over three years, and the Supreme Court has concluded that he may be extradited to his homeland of Rwanda, where he risks life in prison.
The magazine Ny Tid has cross-checked several of the witness interrogations in the case,and compared them against what the same witnesses said in previous court cases and interviews.
In several cases, witnesses have given completely different information to the United Nations (UN), the International Criminal Court and Finnish lawyers. One of the witnesses previously testified that a completely different man was central in the violence.
‘The pattern recurs, and when we see this in context, we can’t support it. It is the same with witness after witness. One eventually finds many indications that the statements have been constructed’, said the defence lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes.
Several of the witnesses were not confronted with the conflicting explanations given to the National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS or Kripos) and Norwegian courts. NCIS declined to comment.
The Ministry of Justice will take a final decision on whether the man is to be extradited. They also do not want to comment on the matter.
In summer, the statements of several other witnesses in the case were thrown into doubt, and in November, Stavanger Aftenblad wrote that several witnesses withdrew their testimony.
Several witnesses said they had been pressured to testify against the man. In the wake of that,NCIS claimed that the evidence against the man was impaired, but that there were still grounds to extradite him.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
