ICTR Sacks Lawyer Over $300,000 Fee Scandal
 

By S. CHHATBAR
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

THE ARUSHA-BASED International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sacked a lead counsel defending a former senior military officer for alleged fraud and misappropriation of about $300,000.

Adama Dieng, Registrar of the ICTR, has withdrawn the assignment of Jean Degli of Togo, lead counsel for Gratien Kabiligi, for professional misconduct, "involving dishonesty, fraud and deceit," which is a violation of Article 20 (c) of the Code of Professional Conduct. 

This is the second time since it was established 10 years ago that the ICTR has taken disciplinary measures against a lawyer appearing before it. In February 2002, the tribunal sacked a defence lawyer, Andrew McCartan of Scotland, for allegedly splitting his fee with Joseph Nzirorera, former secretary general of the extremist Hutu MRND party. Fee-splitting is a practice in which a lawyer gives part of his legal fees to a client in exchange for being retained by the client.

Kabiligi, a former brigadier general in the Rwandan Army (Forces Armees Rwandaises, FAR), is accused of genocide and other crimes against humanity. He has denied the charges. The former head of military operations in FAR is being tried jointly with three other senior army officers, one of whom, Col Theoneste Bagosora, who is allegedly the master-mind of the 100-day slaughter. 

More than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus were killed in the genocide immediately following the shooting down of a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 near the capital, Kigali. Burundi’s president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, who was in the same plane, was also killed. The two presidents were returning from a regional peace meeting in Dar es Salaam.

Mr Dieng said that UN auditors discovered overbilling by Mr Degli, who also engaged an unqualified person as his co-counsel.

The auditors confirmed from the Paris Bar that the attestation submitted by Sylvia Olympio, Mr Degli’s co-counsel, was a forgery. 

Ms Olympio had told the investigators that she used a colour printer to produce the forged attestation that qualified her as a co-counsel.

She said Mr Degli and her family had a long friendship. She said she met Mr Degli in 1996 and he later suggested that she work in his practice without being declared, for a monthly salary of $2,000. She took the offer because this was almost double her then salary. The auditors' report says that Mr Degli was aware that Ms Olympio was not a lawyer. He later suggested that she forge the attestation from the Paris Bar in order to be admitted to practice at the ICTR. He allegedly assured her that neither the tribunal nor the Paris Bar would find out.

The auditors discovered 16 bills submitted by Mr Degli on behalf of Ms Olympio and "after examining them, the co-counsel confirmed they were all forged." Ms Olympio further told the auditors that she had "never worked for the hours mentioned therein." 

She had received only $80,000 for the time she worked with Degli between September 1999 and April 2003, while the bill paid by the tribunal, meant for the co-counsel, amounted to $380,266. The scandal was disclosed by Ms Olympio, who wrote to the tribunal on April 27, 2003, admitting, among other things, that she had never been called to the bar, and that her attestation was forged.

Mr Dieng said, "There is overwhelming evidence that Mr Degli played a major role in what appears to be a veritable fraud scheme that was well planned, orchestrated and carried out. We will file a case against Mr Degli to recover the money."

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