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World News

Police: US lawyer held in Rwanda attempts suicide

Posted:  06/02/2010 7:43 PM

   

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STEVE KARNOWSKI and EDMUND KAGIRE

The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS - A U.S. law professor jailed in Rwanda and charged with denying the

country's genocide tried to commit suicide by swallowing dozens of pills in his

prison cell, Rwandan officials said Wednesday, but his daughter said his family

doesn't believe the claim.

Erlinder, 62, a professor at the College of Law in St.

, has long been a sharp critic of the central African nation's president and

even helped file a lawsuit accusing the one-time rebel leader of sparking the

slaughter that erupted there in 1994.

The professor, who has a history of taking on unpopular causes, was arrested

about a week after going to Rwanda to help with the legal defense of Victoire

Ingabire, an opposition leader running against President Kagame in Aug. 9

elections. Ingabire is accused of promoting genocidal ideology

Erlinder is accused of violating  Rwanda's laws against minimizing the genocide

in which more than 500,000 Rwandans, the vast majority of them ethnic Tutsis,

were massacred by Hutus in 100 days. He doesn't deny massive violence happened

but contends it's inaccurate to blame just one side.

Rwandan police spokesman Kayiranga said Erlinder swallowed 45 to 50 pills

in his prison cell Tuesday night and the attempt may lead courts to charge the

professor again, this time with attempted suicide.

" He mixed between 45 and 50 tablets in water and took the concoction in an

attempted suicide, " Kayiranga said. " However, the police managed to intercept

and took Erlinder to hospital before the drugs could take their toll on his

body. "

Dr. Nyamwasa, the director of the National Police Hospital where Erlinder

is being treated, said his condition was improving Wednesday. He said Erlinder

may have swallowed his prescription antidepressants and cholesterol-reducing

medication.

Erlinder's daughter, Erlinder, an Arizona attorney, said his family

learned of his hospitalization from U.S. embassy officials in Kigali and his

lawyers Wednesday. She said neither his attorneys nor embassy staff heard about

it until three hours after it happened.

The hospitalization and the police claim have the family fearful that " they've

already attempted to hurt him or they're laying the groundwork to kill him. ...

His situation has gone from unimaginably horrible to even worse, " his daughter

said.

Embassy officials and his lawyers were able to see him in the hospital. They

weren't able to get much information on why he was there, she said, but she was

sure he didn't try to kill himself.

" No. I don't believe it at all, " she said.

Erlinder was also hospitalized Monday after falling ill during interrogation.

Nyamwasa said Erlinder told him he attempted suicide because he was scared of

the long sentence he could receive if convicted. He could face up to 25 years in

prison, according to lawyers working for his freedom.

" He intimated to me that his worry was to go to jail for life, " Nyamwasa said.

His daughter is in Washington to press for her father's freedom. She said she

and his wife, Masako Usui, qwew scheduled to hold a news confernece Thursday and

meet with officials State Department officials.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said he had no information on why

Erlinder had been hospitalized.

" We have visited and spoken with Erlinder. He was taken to the hospital

this morning and remained there overnight for observation. His U.S. and Rwandan

attorneys have had access to him and we expect that due process will be accorded

by the Rwandans in a timely and transparent way, " Crowley said.

Erlinder leads a group of defense lawyers at the U.N.'s International

Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The tribunal is trying alleged masterminds of the

genocide, which stopped after Kagame's mostly Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu-led

government.

" is a tenacious and vigorous advocate, to say the least, so when he is

assigned to take on the responsibility of defending someone on a serious

criminal case he's going to give that person the very best defense he can, " said

Janus, the dean at . " And for that means digging into

the historical record. "

Erlinder, a former president of the progressive National Lawyers Guild, has

worked on numerous cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, alleged

government or police misconduct and defense of political activism.

He also has spoken out on behalf of people facing terrorism charges, including

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a Canadian citizen who in 2009 pleaded guilty in

federal court in Minneapolis to aiding al-Qaida. He is also advising Chippewa

Indian bands in northern Minnesota in a revived dispute over treaty fishing

rights.

In late April, Erlinder helped file a lawsuit in Oklahoma accusing Kagame of

ordering the 1994 deaths of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, and

Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira, igniting the genocide. The lawsuit was

filed on behalf of the widows of the former presidents, who were killed when

their plane was shot down.

Erlinder has made the allegations before, citing tribunal documents and books by

former tribunal prosecutors. Kagame's government denies the accusations.

Erlinder's wife and daughter said he knew he was taking a risk by going to

Rwanda but probably thought he had taken sufficient precautions by contacting

the State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Kigali and Minnesota's congressional

offices.

But Rwandan government spokeswoman Louise Mushikiwabo compared Rwanda's laws to

those in some European countries against denying the Holocaust.

" We understand that human rights activists schooled in the U.S. Bill of Rights

may find this objectionable, " Mushikiwabo said in a statement. " But for Rwandans

, schooled in the tragedy of the 1994 genocide and who long for peace , Mr.

Erlinder's arrest is an act of justice. "

,,,

Kagire reported from Kigali, Rwanda. Associated Press writer Lee

contributed to this report from Washington.

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