Case Studies
War Crimes
R –v- M [2009]
Mr. M, along with three others also arrested in Britain, are accused of helping to carry out the mass murder of thousands of civilians during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The early stages of this case involved a legal challenge against an agreeement between the United Kingdom and Rwanda to extradite the four defendants so that they could be tried for these crimes in Rwanda.
This was the first hearing of its kind ever to come before a British court. In addition to an in depth knowledge of extradition law, this case required a detailed understanding of the political situation in Rwanda, both past and present. As part of Mr. Munayenza’s defence case we instructed an expert from America to travel to Rwanda to take witness statements on Mr. Munayenza’s behalf to assist his defence case.
On the 9th April 2009 Mr. M was discharged by the High Court in a landmark ruling, rerfusing his extradition to Rwanda. This was the first time an English court had blocked an extradition request from a foreign government on the grounds that it would violate Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
