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Conviction of Hutu hardliner upheld
2005-09-23 07:29:08
By Guardian Reporter
The Appeals Chamber of the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has confirmed the conviction of former Rwandan Cabinet minister Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda for genocide and extermination.
The Appeals Chamber has also ordered the immediate enforcement of the two concurrent life sentences Kamuhanda, 52, received for the crimes committed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
All but one of the 15 grounds of appeal raised by Kamuhanda were dismissed.
The Appeals Chamber vacated the Trial Chamber’s finding that Kamuhanda instigated and aided and abetted genocide and extermination.
However, the Appeals Chamber found that the Trial Chamber correctly held Kamuhanda responsible for ordering genocide and extermination and ruled that vacating the findings that Kamuhanda instigated and aided and abetted the crimes did not require the imposition of a lesser sentence.
On January 22, 2004, Trial Chamber II found Kamuhanda guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.
The Trial Chamber sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life.
Kamuhanda supervised the killings in Gikomero commune, Kigali-Rural prefecture.
He distributed firearms, grenades and machetes to the Interahamwe militia. He also led the attacks at the parish church and adjoining school in Gikomero, where several thousand Tutsi civilians were killed.
From late May until mid-July 1994 he was Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Interim Government.
He was also a member of the MRND party in Kigali. Kamuhanda was arrested in Bourges, France, on November 26, 1999 and was transferred to the UN Detention Facility in Arusha on March 7, 2000.
The Appeals Chamber is composed of Judge Theodor Meron (United States), presiding, Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen (Guyana), Judge Florence Mumba (Zambia), Judge Wolfgang Schomburg (Germany) and Judge Inés Mónica Weinberg de Roca (Argentina).
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