The trial of Leon Mugesera, the Rwandan academic extradited from Canada at the beginning of this year, was adjourned immediately it began after he lodged a claim that the court in which he was being tried did not have the jurisdiction to hear his case.

The case kicked off after months of postponement resulting from his side citing the need to prepare his defence. The Nyarugenge Intermediate Court said it would pronounce itself on the case on December 24.

Mr Mugesera, who has lived in Canada since 1993, is facing charges linked to a speech he made in 1992, related to planning and inciting the public to commit genocide. He was eventually deported in January after more than a decade battling extradition attempts by the Rwandan government.

The prosecution team, led by the Prosecutor-General, Martin Ngoga, says the former politician is again using the law as an excuse to delay the hearings.

Through his Kenyan lawyer, Gershom Ottachi Bw’Omanwa, Mr Mugesera said he was unlawfully being tried under a Rwandan law instead of that governing cases transferred from the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

READ: Rwanda receives first genocide case from ICTR

“He should be tried under the said law and, if that is the case, it should be noted that the ICTR only has competence to try crimes committed between January 1 and December 31, 1994. As we know, my client does not fall in that category,” Mr Ottachi argued.

Tried under the law

Mr Ottachi told the court that the information the defence had was that Rwanda and Canada agreed that Mr Mugesera would be tried under the law. But Mr Ngoga, who is heading a panel of the country’s leading prosecutors in the case, pointed out that the defence ought to make a distinction between cases transferred from the Arusha-based tribunal and those coming from elsewhere.

Prosecution accused Mr Mugesera of employing all manner of delaying tactics, which would make the case complicated and costly.

Earlier, Mr Mugesera had requested for a month to allow him time to revise his huge case file, thought to have some 40,000 pages containing a total of five charges.

The academic-cum-politician is accused of urging Hutus in Kabaya, Western Province, to kill Tutsi – whom he referred to as “cockroaches.” He reportedly told them to dump the bodies in the River Nyabarongo so that they would find their way back to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), where they allegedly originated.