Ministry claims quicker trial rate in genocide cases

Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo announced on Wednesday that the judicial system had settled some 2,500 genocide cases in 1999, compared to a total of just 1,200 in 1997 and 1998, RNA reported. In the 2,500 cases decided in 1999, 116 people were sentenced to death, 322 to life imprisonment and more than 425 sentenced to lesser prison sentences, the agency said. The Gacaca system of participatory justice would speed the process further when it began functioning, probably in April this year, after the necessary laws had been passed, RNA quoted de Dieu Mucyo as saying. The proposed Gacaca system involving 10,000 courts throughout Rwanda is intended to speed up substantially the trial of genocide suspects, more than 125,000 of whom have already been detained and await trial, the report added.