Courtroom
‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero never joined rebels – co-accused
Paul Rusesabagina, the ex-hotelier immortalised in the film “Hotel Rwanda”, never belonged to a rebel group that sought to overthrow President Paul Kagame, one of the former rebels accused with him of terrorism told a court on Wednesday. “Rusesabagina was never a member of the National Liberation Front (FLN), he was a civilian … He is not a soldier,” former FLN spokesman Callixte Sankara told the court in Kigali. He said the prosecution had presented no evidence to substantiate its claim that Rusesabagina had given orders to the FLN, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in past years that it said were aimed at ousting the president. Sankara is one of 20 Rwandans being tried alongside Rusesabagina, who is 67. Prosecutors describe them as fighters for the FLN. Most were captured in s...
Judge postpones trial for three ex-cops in George Floyd case – reports
A judge postponed the trial of three former Minneapolis policemen accused of taking part in the murder of George Floyd to March 2022 after they said that prosecutors leaked prejudicial information about the case, online court records showed. Tou Thao, 25, J. Alexander Kueng, 27, and Thomas Lane, 28, all fired and arrested days after Floyd was killed on May 25, have been charged with aiding and abetting the second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter of Floyd. Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was convicted on April 20 of murdering Floyd, 46, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, in a case that marked a milestone in America’s fraught racial history and a rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans. The death, captured on cellphone video, led to pr...
Man handed 15-year prison sentence for murder of Maltese journalist
Vince Muscat, one of three men accused of murdering Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday after changing his plea to guilty. The judge accepted the plea bargain presented by Muscat’s lawyers and prosecutors after he had told the Valletta courtroom that he was admitting to all charges, in a shock development that could prove crucial in the high-profile murder case. Muscat must also pay 43,000 euros (52,240 dollars) in court fees. Muscat is one of three men accused of planting and detonating the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia in her car in October 2017. A fourth man, business tycoon Yorgen Fenech, stands accused of having paid the three men to carry out the assassination. He denies the charges. In a statement read ou...
