The National Commission for the Fight against the Genocide (CNLG) also announced that it will do whatever is possible to follow up and apprehend convicts who evaded justice so that they may also serve their sentences.
While highlighting what the commission has so far done to apprehend convicts still at large in different parts of the country or abroad, Dr. Jean Damascene Bizimana, the executive secretary of CNLG during a press conference on Wednesday, said they will apprehend them in order to eradicate the culture of impunity
“In collaboration with other institutions, we are looking for convicts who have not served their terms. So far, those who have been apprehended are 358. They were returned to jails while others are doing community work as the last serving of their sentences,” he said.
Bizimana also explained that there are 167 people whose addresses are known and 1,072 who escaped to other districts in the country while addresses for other 95 people are unknown. The last category is made up of 204 people who escaped to other countries.
However, Dr. Bizimana says that people should not consider these figures to be a serious problem or think that people who were convicted are still free.
He explained that when someone’s file is obtained and analyzed, it takes just less than two hours to apprehend that person.
He added that even when the file of someone who evaded justice is obtained, concerned institutions are informed so that that person is watched closely. After their file has been scrutinized, he says, the person is instantly apprehended.
Bizimana said that CNLG and other institutions will never tolerate convicts that are at large. However, he said that the process must be done carefully so that no one is treated unfairly.
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