[JURIST] Former Rwandan Minister of the Interior Callixte Kalimanzira [case materials; press release] went to trial Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website]. Kalimanzira, who served as interior minister during the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder], is accused of inciting the genocide in his public speeches, distributing weapons used in the massacres and participating in some of the killings. In 2005, Kalimanzira pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges. BBC News has more.

Kalimanzira surrendered [JURIST report] to the tribunal voluntarily in November 2005. The ICTR was established by the UN in 1995 to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, were killed.