Professor Peter Erlinder, noted criminal defense lawyer and past president of the National Lawyers Guild, was arrested Friday morning in Rwanda for "genocide ideology." Erlinder's representation of high-profile defendants before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has incurred the wrath of government officials, who have charged him with "negation of the Tutsi genocide" for mounting defenses of his clients that conflict with the government party line about who was responsible for the 1994 genocide.
The Rwandan government recently blasted the U.S. government for criticizing Rwanda's restrictions on the media and human rights organizations in advance of the upcoming August national elections. A Human Rights Watch researcher had been barred from the country and several independent newspapers had been shuttered. Opposition supporters had been attacked and jailed.
Erlinder had recently filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma against Rwandan president Paul Kagame, which likely angered the government in Rwanda. Erlinder had traveled to Kigali, Rwanda to represent his client, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who is also charged with "denying genocide." Ms. Umuhoza happens to be opposing President Kagame in the forthcoming August elections. Since he arrived in Kigali, the government-sponsored media there has been very critical of Erlinder.
The "Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology," unique to Rwanda, defines genocide broadly and does not require that one have any link to a genocidal act. It punishes legitimate forms of expression protected by international treaties. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department have denounced the law as a means for political repression.
In an interview shortly before he traveled to Kigali, Erlinder stated that Ms. Umuhoza was not in Rwanda in 1994 and the charges against her are not supported by a verdict of the ICTR.
Regardless of the merits of the case, however, it is unsupportable that an attorney be arrested and jailed for vigorously representing his client. In 1770, John Adams defended nine British soldiers, including a captain, who stood accused of killing five Americans. No other lawyer would defend them. Adams thought no one in a free country should be denied the right to a fair trial and the right to counsel. He was subjected to scorn and ridicule and claimed to have lost half his law practice as a result of his efforts. Adams later said his representation of those British soldiers was "one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country."
Bar associations including the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) have condemned Erlinder's arrest. "There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for defendants whom it dislikes and a government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted," said NLG president David Gespass. "Government intimidation and interference with criminal defense lawyers is unacceptable in all its forms and it fundamentally undermines justice," according to an NACDL press release.
Erlinder should be released immediately. He should be given immediate access to counsel and the charges against him should be dismissed.
When she states that the "Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology," is “unique to Rwanda” she is not telling the whole truth, something lawyers do best. Every nation in the European Union has laws against denying the holocaust. While she’s correct that this law (and any law like it for that matter) can be used to punish “legitimate forms of expression protected by international treaties” it appears that Erlinder’s is not one of those cases. This is also not just a political arrest (no more than any other arrest for this crime would be.) Erlinder knew he had broken Rwandan laws and even said as much in his piece from 20th Febuary, 2008 entitled “The Great Rwanda Genocide Cover-up” where he states, “under the laws of Rwanda , I too am a criminal negationist….”
So there is no doubt that he broke the laws of Rwanda and knew he had done so. Ingabire deserves a proper and vigorous defense but being a defense attorney does not give one diplomatic immunity.
Comments?
Steveterrill@hotmail.com
Since the return of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Kagame does not know how to act. Kagame simply does not allow disagreement. Kagame recently admitted that he shot refugees, called those who flee the country excrements. He has wiped out whole villages in the parts of Rwanda and this is well documented. Talk about genocide!! Kagame's beef with Peter Erlinder is the Rwanda Documentation Project where Erlinder put all available documents online for everyone to judge the evidence for themselves. Kagame wants to keep that hidden in order to continue to hide the massacres he committed against our relatives.
Peter Erlinder will be released and Kagame will continue to be seen for the monster that he is in the region where he (Kagame) is responsible for the death of 5 million Congolese.
When we or our people commit a terrible crime, it’s sometimes impossible to accept that and therefor it’s easier to focus on the crimes of others. That’s understandable. Some people blame the genocide on an RPF invasion as if an RPF invasion of any kind was license for the mass killing of the elderly and the mass rape and torture of Tutsi women in Rwanda? Thousands of women were gang raped, children's even babies were gleefully cut from pregnant bellies on a huge scale. I talked to more than a hundred of just such women. I’ve also spoken to many, many Hutu who have suffered various harms in Rwanda but I’ve NEVER met a Hutu woman who was raped by RPF soldiers.
Sorry I don’t have the numbers you’re looking for but I’ll see what I can find.
steveterrill@hotmail.com
Millions of Rwandans have been arrested or killed by the extremist Tutsi police and army in Rwanda over the past 20 years. Many people refused to listen when Rwandans were crying foul and kept on considering General Kagame as the 'savior' despite the fact that he of all people is responsible for the ethnic hatred that has engulfed Rwanda since his violent invasion of October 1990.
Prof Erlinder knew that the extremist Tutsis may go to such an extreme step of arresting him. Yet, he put his freedom at risk by going there. I really thank him for such courage and strength of character. Thanks to him, the world can finally see the face of the Tutsi extremists that the rest of us Rwandans, Tutsi moderates, Hutus and Twas have had to suffer under all these years.
I hope reason prevails so that he is freed immediately and that after this event the Western supporters of the Tutsi extremists in power in Rwandan can make them realize that this is 2010, not the Dark Ages and they cannot run a country like that.