Police: US lawyer held in Rwanda attempts suicide

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Police: US lawyer held in Rwanda attempts suicide
By Associated Press
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - Added 37m ago

MINNEAPOLIS - A U.S. law professor jailed in Rwanda and charged with denying the country’s genocide tried to commit suicide by swallowing dozens of pills in his prison cell, Rwandan officials said Wednesday, but his daughter said his family doesn’t believe the claim.

Peter Erlinder, 62, a professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, has long been a sharp critic of the central African nation’s president and even helped file a lawsuit accusing the one-time rebel leader of sparking the slaughter that erupted there in 1994.

The professor, who has a history of taking on unpopular causes, was arrested about a week after going to Rwanda to help with the legal defense of Victoire Ingabire, an opposition leader running against President Paul Kagame in Aug. 9 elections. Ingabire is accused of promoting genocidal ideology

Erlinder is accused of violating Rwanda’s laws against minimizing the genocide in which more than 500,000 Rwandans, the vast majority of them ethnic Tutsis, were massacred by Hutus in 100 days. He doesn’t deny massive violence happened but contends it’s inaccurate to blame just one side.


Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/africa/view/20100602police_us_lawyer_held_in_rwanda_attempts_suicide/

[Aleric]

1. Rwandan Government Lies

These claims have been refuted by people near the situation. For better info go to;

http://www.nlg.org/news/announcements/latest-updates-on-peter-erlinder/