Rwanda would not waive the death penalty, the country's...

Rwanda would not waive the death penalty, the country's representative to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) for Rwanda said. Aloys Mutabingwa, was refuting earlier media reports attributed to him, that Kigali was considering scrapping capital punishment. The Hirondelle News Agency had quoted Mutabingwa as saying that the Rwandan government was willing to engage in talks aimed at lifting the death sentence as part of the preconditions for the transfer of some ICTR prisoners to Kigali. However, Mutabingwa said Rwanda had not considered changing its penal code to conform to the ICTR arrangement. The Arusha-based tribunal did not apply death sentences to the genocide convicts, in conformity with international rules. The heaviest penalty the ICTR could give someone was life imprisonment. This followed reports that the controversy is threatening to stall the transfer of about 45 suspects to Kigali for trial on genocide charges and crimes against humanity, committed during the 1994 genocide.