Genocide convicts sentenced by Brussels court

Four Rwandans found guilty of war crimes committed during the 1994 genocide were on Friday sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 12 to 20 years by the Brussels ‘Cour d’Assises’ (Crown Court) in Belgium. The prosecutor had requested life imprisonment for the four convicted, but defence lawyers called for sentences that were in keeping with the standards used by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. Alphonse Higaniro, 52, a former minister and director of a match factory, received the longest sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. Vincent Ntezimana, 39, a former professor at Butare university, received 12 years; and the two nuns Consolata Mukangango, 42, and Julienne Mukabutera, 36, known as sisters Gertrude and Maria Kisito, from the Benedictine convent in Sovu, received 15 and 12 years’ imprisonment respectively. All four originate from Butare in southern Rwanda where their crimes were committed, and had been living in Belgium since the 1994 genocide in which at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. The ground-breaking trial is the first ever in which a country has judged war crimes and human rights violations committed by foreigners on foreign soil. Ntezimana could not refrain from crying when the sentences were read out, but the other three showed no sign of emotion. They have no right of appeal. Only the ‘Cour de Cassation’ [the highest court of appeal] is authorised to review the trial if the request is made within 15 days. Defence lawyers expressed doubt over the ability of a foreign jury to understand the complexities of the 1994 genocide, while lawyers for the victims stressed that the involvement of a people’s jury “avoided transforming the trial into a political debate”. “It was not a justice of revenge, but a justice aimed at paving the way to reconciliation in Rwanda,” one lawyer commented. The genocide survivors’ association IBUKA also expressed satisfaction with the way the trial was handled. In a statement, the organisation described the sentences as a “victory against impunity”.