ICTR convicts father and son of genocide

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Wednesday sentenced Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana to 10 years in prison and his son, Gerard, to 25 years in prison for their roles in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The tribunal said in a statement that Trial Chamber I Judges Navanethem Pillay of South Africa (presiding), Erick Møse of Norway and Andresia Vaz of Senegal, had delivered the unanimous verdict. The judgment against the father and son is the ninth since the UN Security Council established the ICTR in 1995. The tribunal has now convicted 10 accused and acquitted one. Elizaphan, 78, was a senior pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist church in Mugonero in Rwanda's Kibuye Prefecture during the genocide. He was convicted of aiding and abetting in genocide. Gerard Ntakirutimana, 45, was a doctor at the Mugonero Adventist hospital. He was convicted of genocide and of crimes against humanity (murder). The judges gave credit for the time the two had already served on remand in the United States and in Arusha. Elizaphan was arrested in Texas, United States, on 29 September 1996, and transferred to the Arusha, the ICTR's headquarters, in 2000. Gerard was arrested in Cote d'Ivoire in 2000 and transferred to the tribunal the same year. This means that Elizaphan has already served six and a half years of the 10-year jail term, and Gerard about two years of his 25-year sentence. According to the ICTR, Elizaphan and Gerard jointly faced two indictments, the "Mugonero" indictment with five counts and the "Bisesero" indictment with seven counts. The indictments charged the Nktakirutimanas with genocide, in the alternative complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, as well as crimes against humanity. The father and son allegedly participated in killings and in attacks against "a large number of men, women and children" who had sought refuge in the Mugonero Adventist complex, as well as in the area of Bisesero, both in Kibuye Prefecture. The ICTR judges "examined in detail all of the prosecution's allegations against the accused, and found that there was insufficient evidence against either of them on the counts of complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, crimes against humanity (extermination), crimes against humanity (other inhumane acts) contained in both indictments, and the count of serious violations of the Geneva Conventions contained in the Bisesero Indictment," the ICTR said. However, the judges found that Elizaphan had conveyed attackers to Murambi Church and ordered the removal of the church roof so that it could no longer be used as a shelter for the ethnic Tutsis. "In so doing, he facilitated the hunting down and the killing of the Tutsi refugees hiding in Murambi Church in Bisesero," the tribunal quoted the judges as saying. The judges found "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Gerard "killed Charles Ukobizaba, a Tutsi accountant at the Mugonero hospital, by shooting him in the chest from a short distance in the hospital courtyard at around midday on 16 April 1994. It also found that he shot and killed a person named Esdras during an attack at Gitwe Primary School". See also the ICTR