The Appeals Chamber of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, composed of Judge Carmel Agius, presiding, Judge Mehmet Güney, Judge Liu Daqun, Judge Andrésia Vaz, and Judge Arlette Ramaroson, today heard oral arguments in the appeal lodged by Dominique Ntawukulilyayo, former Sub-Prefect of Gisagara in Kibuye Prefecture. Ntawukulilyayo was on 3 August 2010 convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison by Trial Chamber III. 

The Trial Chamber found him guilty of genocide under Article 6(1) of the Statute for ordering, as well as aiding and abetting, the killings of Tutsi civilians at Kabuye hill, Butare prefecture, in April 1994. 

In his appeal Ntawukulilyayo contends that the Trial Chamber committed a number of errors of law and fact, and accordingly requests the Appeals Chamber to reverse the Trial Judgement, enter an acquittal, and order his immediate release, or, in the alternative, reduce his sentence.

Ntawukulilyayo was born in 1942 in Kibeho, Mubuga commune, Gikongoro prefecture, Rwanda. On 1990, he was appointed Sub-Prefect of the Gisagara sub-prefecture in Butare prefecture, a position he maintained until July 1994. The accused was arrested in France on 17 October 2007 and transferred to the United Nations Detention Facility in Arusha on 5 June 2008.