Three genocide convicts appeal in Belgium

Three of the “Butare Four” genocide convicts found guilty in Brussels on 8 June have filed an appeal in Belgium for a retrial. Alphonse Higaniro, 52, former director of a match factory in Butare, and two Roman Catholic nuns, Consolata Mukangango, 42, and Julienne Mukabutera, 36, known as sisters Gertrude and Maria Kisito, were found guilty of war crimes committed during the 1994 genocide and sentenced to between 12 and 15 years in jail. A lawyer for Mukangango said the appeal challenged the trial’s judicial procedure on technical terms. The “Butare Four” trial was described as “historic”, because it was the first time that defendants were tried in Belgium under a 1993 law which allows Belgian courts to judge war crimes and human rights violations committed by foreigners on foreign soil, including armed conflict within a country. No information was available about the fourth defendant, Vincent Ntezimana, 39, a former professor at Butare university who was found guilty of five out of the nine counts against him.