Of late, the ICTR has been rocked by allegations of racism in its recruiting process and rampant nepotism in the employment of defence investigators. There are also concerns about the safety of protected witnesses who have already testified and are now known to Nshamihigo. However, the charges were dropped on the instructions of the director of immigrations when the ICTR's chief prosecutor, Ms Carla del Ponte, requested that Nshamihigo be transferred to the UN Detention Facility on the outskirts of Arusha, pending the formal filing of genocide charges. It is instructive that Nshamihigo was the deputy prosecutor of Cyangugu Prefecture during the genocide.
Sources say that after the genocide, the two men fled to Congo together.
Imanishimwe was arrested after the creation of the ICTR but Nshamihigo was not, perhaps because of his new identity as a Congolese. According to the ICTR rules, the defence lawyers have the power to hire and fire the investigators. However, it is not known whether Imanishimwe had a hand in the hiring of Nshamihigo. The arrest is welcome and timely but the tribunal must close loopholes that allow genocide suspects to get into its employ. He is said to have been a frequent weekend traveller to the Kenyan capital.