Dot coms behind bars

By JKM

February 8, 2001

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Of all the things a man accused of inciting genocide could smuggle into a jail cell, a computer modem would seem low on the list. Yet that's what UN officials seized from Hassan Ngeze, who ran a Web site from prison he used to denounce the international judges hearing his case.

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Ngeze was the editor of the Rwandan newspaper which published the Hutu Ten Commandments, a document that encouraged massive violence against the Tutsis, reports the GUARDIAN (UK). He has legal access to a telephone, fax, and personal computer in jail, which he has been using to attack the international court over the Internet. The Web site -- with long defamations of the judges and photographs of Ngeze working out inside the prison -- is registered under his name, but the UN has been unable to shut it down because it's monitored by an outside supporter.

Ngeze has refused to attend his trial, alleging the judges are conspiring against him with the support of the Tutsi-led Rwandan government, and that the prosecution witnesses are lying.

 

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