U.S. LawProf Erlinder Freed on Bail in Rwanda

I kind of expected this would turn out this way, but it does the Rwandan government no credit that they finally released jailed U.S. law professor Peter Erlinder, albeit on bail and due to concerns about his health.  Needless to say, I doubt Professor Erlinder will be returning to Rwanda anytime soon.

Peter Erlinder, the American lawyer jailed inRwanda after being accused of denying the country’s genocide, was released Thursday on bail amid growing international pressure, allowing him to leave Rwanda, possibly for good.

Judges in a high court in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, overturned an earlier decision to deny bail to Mr. Erlinder, 62, citing questions over his medical condition. Mr. Erlinder, who has been hospitalized since Tuesday with high blood pressure, was not present.

“Peter can go back to the United States,” said Mr. Erlinder’s lawyer, Kennedy Ogetto, adding that there was no scheduled time for him to return. “There is no date.”

The court’s decision came after pressure from the United Nations and the United States to free Mr. Erlinder, who works at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Dozens of lawyers at the tribunal, which handles cases related to the Rwandan genocide but is based in Tanzania, said that Mr. Erlinder had been arrested for his work there, despite holding diplomatic immunity, and they had threatened to stop working because of his case.

Mr. Erlinder was arrested days after going to Rwanda in May to represent Victoire Ingabire, a presidential candidate charged with “divisionism” and “genocide ideology,” and with collaborating with terrorists ahead of elections scheduled for August.