Former Rwandan mayor Jean Mpambara pleaded not guilty...

Former Rwandan mayor Jean Mpambara pleaded not guilty to genocide before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He urged the court to order his immediate release, saying his arrest was illegal.
Mpambara was mayor of Rukara, in the eastern Rwandan region of Kibungo, at the time of the 1994 genocide. He was arrested in a Tanzanian refugee camp on June 20th, along with another former Rwandan mayor, Sylvestre Gacumbitsi.
The ICTR Prosecutor alleged that Mpambara, "acting in concert with others, participated in the planning, preparation or execution of a common scheme, strategy, plan or campaign with intent to destroy Tutsis" in Rukara.
Mpambara claimed that he was illegally arrested along with Gacumbitsi. "A second suspect was supposed to be arrested, but it was not me," he said. "When they failed to find that person, the ICTR agents requested that I be detained."