Enters a Conviction for Conspiracy to Commit Genocide, and • Reduces his Sentence Due to a Fair Trial Right Violation

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, composed of Judge Liu Daqun, presiding, Judge Mehmet Güney, Judge Fausto Pocar, Judge Andrésia Vaz, and Judge Carmel Agius, today delivered its judgement in the case of Jean‑Baptiste Gatete v. The Prosecutor.

On 29 March 2011, Trial Chamber III of the Tribunal convicted Gatete pursuant to Article 6(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity in relation to the killings of Tutsis in Rwankuba sector on 7 April 1994, at Kiziguro parish on 11 April 1994, and at Mukarange parish on 12 April 1994. The Trial Chamber sentenced him to a single term of life imprisonment. Both Gatete and the Prosecution appealed.

The Appeals Chamber affirmed Gatete’s convictions and granted, Judge Pocar partially dissenting and Judge Agius dissenting, the Prosecution’s ground of appeal on the failure to enter a conviction for conspiracy to commit genocide. The Appeals Chamber entered, Judges Pocar and Agius dissenting, a conviction for conspiracy to commit genocide.
The Appeals Chamber reduced Gatete’s sentence to 40 years of imprisonment as a remedy for the violation of his right to be tried without undue delay. He is to remain in the United Nations Detention Facility in Arusha, Tanzania, pending his transfer to the country in which he will serve his sentence.

Gatete was born in 1953 in Rwankuba sector, Murambi commune, Byumba prefecture, Rwanda. Between 1982 and 1993, Gatete was the bourgmestre of Murambi commune and, in April 1994, he became a director in the Rwandan Ministry of Women and Family Affairs.