ICTR Reveals Appeal Trial of Former Rwandan Minister of Youth

{{The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will hear on April 29, the Appeal trial of former Minister of Youth Callixte Nzabonimana, sentenced to life imprisonment in the first instance.}}

In May 31st, 2012, the former minister was convicted of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and extermination.

Nzabonimana was sentenced notably for his participation, along with other members of the government, in a famous meeting on 18 April 1994 at Murambi in his native prefecture of Gitarama.

According to the judgment, the meeting sealed “agreement “between Nzabonimana and other ministers, to “encourage the killing of Tutsis.”

Born in 1953, Nzabonimana is one of the few intellectuals of southern Province to have remained in the ranks of the MRND, the party of former President Juvenal Habyarimana, after the advent of multiparty in 1991.

He studied geology at Dijon, France.

He was appointed in 1984, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic. Five years later, he entered the government as Minister of Planning, a department that President Habyarimana always wanted to entrust a brilliant academician.

In 1990, he was transferred to the Ministry of Youth , a position he held until July 1994. Nzabonimana was arrested in Tanzania on 18 February 2008 and his trial began November 9, 2009.