- guardian.co.uk, Friday October 13 2000 02.21 BST
Tharcisse Muvunyi, held on remand in Belmarsh prison since his arrest in February, is alleged to have carried out the murders of more than 100,000 Tutsis during the 1994 massacres in Rwanda.
In the high court yesterday his lawyers withdrew an application for habeus corpus after assurances from the home secretary, Jack Straw, and the registrar for the tribunal, which sits in Tanzania.
They agreed that if Mr Muvunyi is acquitted or discharged he will be escorted to the airport and flown to Britain, where his refugee status will be reviewed. But Mr Straw made it clear that he reserved the right to revoke Mr Muvunyi's present status of being allowed to remain in Britain until 2002 and to retain his discretion on any new application for refugee status.
Mr Muvunyi will fly to Tanzania in the next few days.
Mike Fisher, his solicitor, said: "My client is confident that he will be able to successfully defend himself against the charges. He feared that even if he was acquitted his life would be in danger."
Mr Muvunyi, 46, came to Britain in 1998 with his wife and three children and settled in Lewisham, south London. But it was not until his presence was exposed in the media and an international warrant for his arrest was issued by the tribunal that he was detained.
Mr Muvunyi was in charge of operations for the Rwandese armed forces in Butare and Gikongoro in April and May 1994 when the Hutu militias, backed by the police, started to slaughter Tutsis.
Among the allegations against him is that he directed the murder of 65,000 people in a Runyinya commune on a single day, April 21.
African Rights, a London-based human rights group, claims that there are more than 100 people, including soldiers and local government officials, who are ready to testify.
A spokesman for Amnesty International said yesterday: "The UK government should be congratulated for its cooperation with the tribunal. A speedy transfer of Mr Muvunyi offers the chance to investigate thoroughly some obscene crimes."
