U.S. Court Suppresses “Involuntary” Rwanda Confessions

On August 17, 2006, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a lengthy, 109-page opinion suppressing statements made by three Rwandan defendants being prosecuted for the 1999 killings of two U.S. tourists in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Forest (“Bwindi”) in southwestern Uganda. Francois Karake, Gregoire Nyaminani, and Leonidas Bimenyimana face a four-count indictment for the March 1, 1999 killings carried out by the Liberation Army of Rwanda (“ALIR”). The U.S. government asserted extraterritorial jurisdiction to prosecute defendants, all former members of ALIR.