Rwanda's representative to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has confirmed that a Rwandan lawyer recently appointed as defense counsel at the United Nations court is himself a major genocide suspect.

Aloys Mutabingwa told the Hirondelle News Agency, one that specializes in covering the trials of Rwandan genocide suspects in Arusha of northern Tanzania, that Callixte Gakwaya was on Rwanda's most wanted list of genocide suspects.

Gakwaya is currently residing in Mozambique.

The Rwandan representative to the UN court said that Gakwaya's name appeared as Number 140 on the list of over 300 suspects handed to the Interpol.

Gakwaya has been appointed by ICTR as defense counsel for a former businessman from Cyangugu in southern Rwanda.

"Since he is not on their (ICTR) list of suspects, they should arrest him and hand him over to us," said the Rwandan envoy who added that he was surprised by the ICTR appointment.

The Rwandan government has on several occasions raised the issue of genocide suspects being in the employment of the tribunal and some of these suspects have been arrested and indicted.

The ICTR, set up in 1995 with its mandate to end in 2008, has so far brought to trial 27 people while 26 others are currently on trial, with another 17 waiting to be taken to court.

The UN court has so far convicted 24 accused and acquitted three. It is still pursuing 19 people on charges relating to the 1994 genocide.

Source: Xinhua