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Lawyers swap positions at Arusha UN tribunal
2008-04-19 09:38:21
By Esther Nyathira
The prosecutor of the Arusha based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Hassan Jallow, has appointed Richard Karegyesa (49) to become Acting Chief of Prosecutions.
Prior to his latest appointment, he served same court as senior trial attorney and head of trial support services in the office of the prosecutor (OTP) Karegyesa replaces Silvan Arbia who is now the registrar at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague after leaving the Tribunal in early April.
Arbia was elected late February this year by the judges of the court on a five year term according to a press release from the prosecutors` office.
Karegyesa has been an attorney in OTP since January 1999. Prior to joining the tribunal, he was a private lawyer in Uganda.
He has served as an international law consultant to a number of national, regional and international organisations.
He also taught law courses at the Law Development Centre in Uganda.
Between 1983 and 1990, Karegyesa was a State Attorney in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Uganda where he was responsible for Criminal Prosecutions in the High Court and appeals in the Supreme Court.
He graduated with Honors in Law from Makerere University in 1982 and obtained his LLM degree from the University of London in 1987.
Holo Makwaia, a Trial Attorney will serve as Head of the Trial Team in the `Butare`case, the largest and oldest case before the UN Court.
Makwaia replaces Arbia as Head of the Trial Team.
Before joining the ICTR, Makwaia served as Senior State Attorney in the Tanzanian Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs where she was responsible for the prosecution of homicide and assault cases before the High Court of Tanzania.
She has also worked as a researcher for Amnesty International in London and Rwanda. She is also a founding member of the Tanzania Women Lawyers` Association.
This provides free legal advice to indigent women and children and advocates for legal reforms.
The UN Court was established in November 1994 to try key suspects of the Rwanda genocide.
The tribunal has so far convicted 30 persons and acquitted 5. Eleven trials are underway involving 27 accused.
The UN Security Council has directed the tribunal to close all first instance trials by end of the year and appeals by 2010.
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