Please support the petition to Free Professor Peter Erlinder
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freepetererlinder/
According to Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune writer Jeremy Herb in a story just posted to the newspaper’s staff blog: “The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the United Nations court that has tried Rwanda’s genocide crimes — and where St. Paul attorney Peter Erlinder is head of the defense attorney association — has called for Erlinder’s immediate release.
“The tribunal, in a two-page letter to Erlinder’s Rwandan prosecutor and the Rwandan minister of foreign affairs, wrote that Erlinder should not be prosecuted because the case against the William Mitchell College of Law professor involves his work as a defense attorney in the tribunal, where his clients were Rwandans accused of genocide
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor Erlinder is a law professor at William Mitchell College of Law, lead defense attorney for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and president of the ICTR defense lawyers association. The ICTR was set up by the United Nations Security Council in 1994 to prosecute war criminals for events that happened in 1994.
Erlinder faces charges of genocidal ideology and threatening Rwandan national security. These charges are directly related to the vigorous defense of his clients. According to the Rwanda prosecutor and court, the basis for the charges against him are that he:
• Successfully proved to the ICTR that the genocide had not been planned or executed by the person he represented, Aloys Ntabakuze.
• Publicly wrote, outside of Rwanda, in defense of his clients through articles, press releases and open letters to public officials calling for a deeper examination of the events that happened in 1994 and suggested that there could be a different narrative based on factual evidence.
• Filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Paul Kagame in the Oklahoma federal court under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of his client, Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan president.
Erlinder continues to be held, now in Kigali Central Prison, after he received a judgment on Monday, June 7, 2010, denying him bail or any type of release.
The spokesman for the “United Nations-backed tribunal for Rwanda,” Roland Amoussouga, stated, “ICTR will not allow anyone to be prosecuted for the work that it has done for it,” according to a June 13 New York Times story, “American Lawyer Denied Bail in Rwanda” by Josh Kron.
The same New York Times article also reported, “Despite assurances from Rwanda that Mr. Erlinder was not arrested for his work at the tribunal, officials at the tribunal say they also believe there is a connection. They have asked Rwanda for clarification and may bring the case in front of the United Nations Security Council.”
Among many human rights and legal organizations that have called for Erlinder’s release, the American Bar Association points to the U.N. Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which states that lawyers “shall not be identified with their clients or their client’s causes as a result of discharging their functions” and that “governments shall ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper influence.”
These principals also provided that “lawyers like other citizens are entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly.”
The International Criminal Defense Attorneys Association (ICDAA) denounced and condemned Peter Erlinder’s continued detention in the strongest possible terms and urged all concerned to demand his immediate release.
In a joint statement to the court and the U.N. Security Council, many defense lawyers have demanded Erlinder’s immediate release: “We hereby resolve to postpone all activities, other than those which strictly conserve the interests of our mandates, until such time as the minimum conditions of the normal exercise of our missions have been restored by the removal of threats,” the statement says.
This continued detention has prompted other defense lawyers at the ICTR to refuse to participate in proceedings. Five defense teams before the ICTR have filed motions saying it was too dangerous to represent an accused. ICTR responded by launching contempt proceedings against another American defense lawyer, Peter Robinson, when Robinson stated his intention to withdraw from the case due to Erlinder’s detention.
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a “time”, yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
