Members of associations of survivors

Notion(s) Filing Case
Appeal Judgement - 14.12.2015 NYIRAMASUHUKO et al. (Butare)
(ICTR-98-42-A)

561. The Appeals Chamber considers that a witness’s membership in an association of survivors alone does not imply a desire or motive to implicate the accused, nor does it render the witness’s evidence tainted or his accounts unreliable or partial. The Appeals Chamber therefore sees no reason to require, as a matter of principle, a trial chamber to apply particular caution in treating the evidence of witnesses who are members of such associations. The Appeals Chamber also recalls its position that a “statement by Professor Reynt[j]ens that the Ibuka Organization paid people to give false evidence cannot, per se, constitute a sufficient ground for excluding, in a general manner, the testimony of Prosecution witnesses”.[1]

[1] Rutaganda Appeal Judgement, para. 205.

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