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On 11 April 2000, a Belgian investigating judge of the Brussels Tribunal of First Instance issued an arrest warrant in absentia against the incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Abdulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, charging him with offences constituting grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions I–IV (1949); Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I (1977); Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol II (1977), and crimes against humanity. In the warrant, Mr Yerodia was accused of inciting racial hatred in various speeches in the DRC in August 1998, which had contributed to the massacre of several hundred persons and, thus, he was charged as perpetrator or co-perpetrator of these crimes. The arrest warrant, which asked States to arrest, detain, and extradite Mr Yerodia to Belgium, was transmitted to the DRC in June 2000 and simultaneously circulated internationally through Interpol. On 14 February 2002, the International Court of Justice ruled that the issuance and circulation of the arrest warrant violated Belgium’s international obligations towards the DRC in that Belgium failed to respect, and infringed, Mr Yerodia’s immunity as Minister for Foreign Affairs and the inviolability enjoyed by him under international law. The Court required Belgium to cancel the arrest warrant and inform as such the authorities to whom it was circulated.

Ten men were certified by the Secretary of State as suspected international terrorists and were detained in the Belmarsh prison in London. The certification was made on the basis of information obtained by torture (infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person in order to obtain information). The men appealed their certification and claimed that the tainted information should not have been admitted. The House of Lords held that such information, indeed, should not have been admitted and allowed the appeals.

In November 1993, Senad Ahmetašević, former member of a National Defense unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina, killed a prisoner of war in the Omica Brdo region. On 13 March 2007, the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina requested the extradition of Ahmetašević who resided in the Netherlands at the time. Ahmetašević opposed the extradition. On 5 June 2009, the District Court of The Hague approved the request for extradition. The Court held that the requirements for extradition were met and that there was no fear that Ahmetašević would not enjoy fair trial rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dominique Ntawukulilyayo was the sub-prefect of the Gisaraga sub-prefecture within Butare prefecture, in Rwanda, from 21 September 1990 until he left Rwanda in July 1994.

On 3 August 2010, the Trial Chamber of the ICTR convicted Mr. Ntawukulilyayo of genocide for ordering, as well as aiding and abetting, the killings of Tutsi civilians at Kabuye hill in April 1994. He was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment.

Ntawukulilyayo appealed his conviction. On 14 December 2011, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR acquitted him of the charge of ordering the killings at Kabuye hill. Nevertheless, the Appeals Chamber agreed with the Trial Chamber that the Accused was guilty of aiding and abetting genocide by instructing the refugees who had gathered at Gisaraga market to move to Kabuye hill, and by transporting soldiers who participated in the attack at Kabuye hill on 23 April 1994. His sentence was reduced to a term of 20 years of imprisonment.  

Gaspard Kanyarukiga is a Rwandan national. At the time of the genocide in April 1994, he was a businessman who owned a pharmacy in the Nyange Trading Centre, in Kivumu commune. Trial Chamber II of the Tribunal found him guilty of participating in planning the destruction of the Nyange church on 16 April 1994, which resulted in the killing of approximately 2,000 Tutsi civilians. He was convicted under Article 6(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal for planning genocide and extermination as crime against humanity. He received a sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment.

Kanyarukiga submitted 72 grounds of appeal and the Prosecution submitted 2 grounds of appeal against the Trial Chamber’s judgment. The Appeals Chamber dismissed all the grounds of appeal, upheld his convictions for planning genocide and exterminations as a crime against humanity and affirmed the original sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment imposed on him.