The District Court of East Uusimaa said on Friday that it has been given the go-ahead by officials in Tanzania to hold sessions in Dar es Salaam to question witnesses in a trial of a man suspected of involvement in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
The judges, prosecution, and defence counsel will travel to Tanzania, and the hearing of defence testimony is scheduled to begin on February the 24th.
About half of the 19 witnesses who are to testify on behalf of the defendant, Francois Bazaramba, are refugees.
The witnesses are coming from five different African countries. The reason for holding the sessions in Tanzania is that it is easier for the court to travel to Africa than for all of the witnesses to travel to Finland.
Some defence witnesses will testify in Porvoo. Two to four witnesses from Zambia are expected to come to Finland at the beginning of February.
The trip to Tanzania is the second such journey for the court, which heard prosecution witnesses in Rwanda in September.
The defendant himself will not be taking part in the trial in Africa. One reason is that Finnish officials do not have the right to keep him imprisoned anywhere other than Finland. During the sessions that were held in Rwanda, there was the additional fear that he might be arrested there.
As was the case with the sessions held in Rwanda, Bazaramba will follow the trial in Finland in real time through a sound and video link.
