Can the US State Department Surrender Rwandan Fugitives to the UN Criminal Tribunal?

Abstract

In an Order filed on 7 August 1998 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Laredo Division, Judge John D. Rainey ruled that Rwandan fugitive Elizaphan Ntakirutimana is properly extraditable to the UN International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Judge Rainey's Order reversed a 17 December 1997 ruling by Magistrate Marcel Notzon, who had held that the executive agreement supported by congressional legislation "enabling" the US government to surrender or extradite indicted fugitives to the ICTR was unconstitutional and that the evidence in support of the charges against Mtakirutimana did meet the probable cause standard.