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Justice Minister slams Ruzindana sentence

    NAIROBI
    Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo has protested against the sentence handed down to genocide suspect Obed Ruzindana by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), in Arusha, on Friday. While hailing the life imprisonment sentence against the co-accused former governor of Kibuye, Clement Kayishema, Mucyo complained that the 25 years' jail sentence for Ruzindana was too lenient, Hirondelle news agency reported. Mucyo noted that the Kibuye businessman "took part in preparing the genocide at Bisesero and incited many others to carry it out". The ICTR says it handed down a lesser sentence to Ruzindanda, aged 37, "because of his relatively young age [32 in 1994] and the possibility of rehabilitation". However Mucyo said the Tribunal's decision was "incomprehensible". "There is nothing to prove that a person will make amends one day when that person has never admitted to the crimes and has never asked forgiveness." Mucyo added that such a sentence "risked minimising the genocide" in future ICTR convictions.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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