A Rwandan pastor and his son are due to stand trial on genocide charges today in one of the highest profile cases for the UN tribunal for Rwanda.
Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, who is represented by the former US attorney-general, Mr Ramsey Clark, has pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide alleged to have been carried out in 1994 when Hutu extremists massacred some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The Seventh Day Adventist pastor is the first church leader to stand trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which has so far only convicted eight people for leading the genocide since it was established in November, 1994.
Human rights groups say some church leaders from various denominations played a leading role in the genocide, using their authority to encourage the massacres and join in the killing.
An Anglican bishop is also in detention at the ICTR awaiting trial on genocide charges after being arrested in Kenya earlier this year.
Four Rwandans, including two Catholic nuns, were sentenced to between 12 and 20 years in prison by a Belgian court in June for helping Hutu extremists kill more than 5,000 Tutsis who had sought refuge from the blood-letting.
UN prosecutors say Mr Ntakirutimana encouraged a large group of Tutsi men, women and children to seek refuge in a church and hospital in the Kibuye region of western Rwanda and then called Hutus to come and kill them. They say he and his son Gerard, a former doctor, participated in the massacres and hunted down and killed Tutsi survivors.