The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, composed of Judges Fausto Pocar, presiding, Mehmet Güney, Liu Daqun, Theodor Meron, and Carmel Agius, today delivered two judgements in the cases of the Prosecutor vs Emmanuel Rukundo and The Prosecutor vs Callixte Kalimanzira.
The Chamber affirmed the conviction of Rukundo, a former Military Chaplain, for genocide and for murder and extermination as crimes against humanity in relation to the events related to Saint Joseph’s College and for the killing of Tutsi refugees abducted from the Saint Léon Minor Seminary. But it did so on the basis of his responsibility for aiding and abetting these crimes rather than committing them as the Trial Chamber III had found on 27 February 2009. In addition, the Appeals Chamber, Judge Pocar dissenting, reversed Rukundo’s conviction for genocide by causing serious mental harm to a Tutsi woman when he sexually assaulted her.
The Appeals Chamber then reduced Rukundo’s sentence to 23 years of imprisonment from the 25 years he had previously been sentenced to. The Prosecution appeal was dismissed in its entirety.
The Appeals Chamber also affirmed the conviction of Kalimanzira, former directeur de cabinet in the Ministry of Interior, for aiding and abetting genocide at Kabuye hill but reduced his sentence from the 30 years imprisonment he received earlier to 25 years. The Chamber, with Judge Pocar dissenting in certain instances, reversed Kalimanzira’s remaining convictions after finding several factual and legal errors in the Trial Chamber’s assessment. The Appeals Chamber dismissed the Prosecution appeal in its entirety.
Trial Chamber III, on 22 June 2009, found Kalimanzira guilty of instigating and aiding and abetting genocide at the roadblock on Butare-Gisagara road around 22 April 1994, at Kabuye hill on 23 April 1994 and at the inauguration of Élie Ndayambaje as bourgmestre of Muganza Commune on 22 June 1994. In addition, it convicted Kalimanzira for committing direct and public incitement to commit genocide in Butare prefecture.
Rukundo was born on 1 December 1959 in Mukingi Commune, Gitarama Prefecture, Rwanda. In February 1993, Rukundo, an ordained priest, was appointed as a military chaplain for the Rwandan army, a position he maintained throughout the relevant events. Kalimanzira was born in 1953 in Muganza Commune, Butare Prefecture, Rwanda and held various positions in the Rwandan government.