UN tribunal's appeals chamber upholds genocide conviction

The Appeals Chamber of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday dismissed an appeal by a former minister and affirmed his conviction and sentence to imprisonment for the remainder of his life.

In a statement, the tribunal reported that the appeals chamber had ordered Eliezer Niyitegeka, 52, who was the education minister in Rwanda's interim government in 1994, to remain in the tribunal's custody pending his transfer to the state in which he will serve his sentence.

ICTR Appeals Judges Theodor Meron of the US (presiding), Mohamed Shahabuddeen of Guyana, Florence Mumba of Zambia, Wolfgang Schomburg of Germany and Ines Monica Weinberg de Roca of Argentina made the ruling in Arusha, northern Tanzania, the tribunal's headquarters.

The tribunal reported that Niyitegeka's appeal brief contained 53 points that he argued represented grounds for overturning his conviction. He challenged all the findings in a May 2003 decision of an ICTR trial chamber, arguing that a reasonable court could not have reached the findings and decision, and that his trial was in breach of his statutory right to a fair trial.

However, the appeals chamber dismissed all of Niyitegeka's points, except two in which he had argued that he had insufficient notice of facts underpinning the charges against him. The chamber ruled that the two points did not invalidate the trial chamber's decision.

On 15 May 2003, the ICTR's Trial Chamber I unanimously convicted Niyitegeka of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide. He was also found guilty of murder, extermination and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity.

Niyitegeka was a member of the Mouvement démocratique républicain political party in Rwanda, and chairman of the province of Kibuye from 1991 to 1994.

During its session in Arusha from 7 July to 9 July, the Appeals Chamber also heard the joint appeal of two other convicts, Elizaphan Ntakirutimana and Gérard Ntakirutimana, the father and son who were convicted in February 2003. A decision in the case is expected soon.