The two were in first instance sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 over genocide crimes and crimes against humanity that they allegedly committed in the former Kabarondo Commune (district) which they consecutively led as Bourgmestres (mayors) from 1977 to 1994. They are especially accused of giving orders to kill over 3,500 Tutsi who had sought refuge at Kabarondo Parish in Kayonza District.
The appeal trial running in the Paris Assize Court from May 2nd to July 6th is expected to receive 100 witnesses including those invoked by the defendants and the plaintiff.
In a tele-press conference organised by Pax Press on the 25th day of the hearing last Friday, Emmanuel Ruvugiro Sehene told the journalists in Kigali that the Paris Assize Court is working tirelessly from 9:00am to 10:00pm every day in order to bring about the final verdict on the appeal by July 6th.
Sehene is in Paris from last month to follow all the hearings in appeal of Ngenzi and Barahira.
{{Anonymous witnesses testify
}}
Sehene said that filing their appeal, defendants had claimed to have not received enough time in the first instance to defend themselves but they have now received ample time though witnesses on the plaintiff side still outnumber those on the defence.
“Something new has happened today since the beginning of the appeal trial as anonymous witnesses have appeared for the first time, citing their security concerns. Defendants had tried to avoid those witnesses, saying that they cannot exchange words with the people they are not seeing but the jury took an hour apart and came back with the decision that defendants’ claims were baseless and allowed anonymous witnesses to testify. The first one is done and the second is starting now,” Sehene said on Friday afternoon.
The jury president Xavière Simeoni said the law allows for the protection of witnesses’ identity and both sides in trial can freely ask them their questions.
The male witness named ‘X’ who had a Tutsi wife said that Ngenzi led Interahamwe militia to his home where his sister-in-law was hiding whom Ngenzi ordered the witness to kill in order to spare his wife. The witness who said was convicted with that crime of killing his sister-in-law said Ngenzi who was carrying a pistol forced him to commit that crime.
It was expected for defendants to do investigations in Rwanda but time did not allow. The witnesses including relatives of the suspects are coming from many areas mainly Rwanda and France.
{{Court room image
}}
The court’s jury consists of three judges flanked by nine people who are ready to replace a member of the jury anytime.
The general public and media’s attendance has been very poor since the beginning of the appeal hearings and Sehene says that he has heard that people better attended the first instance and think there is nothing new in the appeal hearings. He said he is always the only reporter in the media area while the audience often consists of three to five people. Witnesses are also often accompanied by three to four people.
Witnesses are insisting on Ngenzi’s incitement of people for killing the Tutsi with some saying they saw him in the killings while others say they never saw him on the killing scenes. Ngenzi and Barahira have consistently denied the charges.
Citing example of testimonies about babies who sacked their dead mothers in the Genocide against the Tutsi, Sehene said that, earlier in other hearings, some witnesses caught trauma as they recount their ordeal during the genocide and testimonies shocked even the defendants and others in the court room that all looked solemn.
Cyasa Habimana Emmanuel, who is serving life sentence over genocide crimes, testified how the genocide was planned in former Kibungo prefecture, currently in Eastern Province.
Cyasa who admitted his role in the killings said that he attended many meetings involving Ngenzi and Barahira among other local leaders that were planning to exterminate the Tutsi.
“I am not testifying to get my penalties reduced but I later recovered my conscious to realize how much we did bad and tarnished our own and country’s image. I feel responsible for witnessing about what I know,” he said.
Referring to the death of President Juvenal Habyaraimana, Cyasa cited a meeting of April 1, 1994 which convened leaders from the sector level to prefecture in which the Tutsi were excluded and Hutu told that they had to revenge after the death of a high profile member of then ruling party MRND.
The National Coordinator of Pax Press, Albert Baudouin Twizeyimana who also attended some hearings last week, said there were important testimonies in the trial which can help Rwandans understand their history and urged media to intensify efforts in reporting justice matters especially those related to the Genocide against the Tutsi.
He said that Pax Press, in partnership with RCN Justice et Démocratie, Haguruka and AMI, will attend and report other genocide trials wherever they will take place in the world in the next five years through the project dubbed “Justice et Memoire.”
Ngenzi and Barahira’s life sentence was the stiffest ever handed out to genocidaires by a French court. In 2014, former army captain Pascal Simbikangwa got 25 years in solitary confinement for genocide and crimes against humanity. Ngenzi and Barahira were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by Rwandan people’s courts, known as “gacaca”, in 2009.
Ngenzi was captured in the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, off the east coast of Africa, where he had been living under a false name. Barahira was arrested in 2013 in the south-western French city of Toulouse where he was living.
Leave a Reply