The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda today sentenced Lieutenant Colonel Ephrem Setako, head of the division of legal affairs in the Ministry of Defence in 1994, to 25 years of imprisonment. He was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity (extermination) and serious violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II (murder), but acquitted of complicity to commit genocide, murder as a crime against humanity and pillage as a war crime.

The Chamber found that Setako ordered the killings on 25 April 1994 of 30 to 40 Tutsis at Mukamira military camp in Ruhengeri prefecture and around 10 other Tutsis there on 11 May 1994.

Setako was arrested on 25 February 2004 in The Netherlands and transferred to the United Nations Detention Facility on 17 November 2004. The trial opened on 25 August 2008 and closed on 26 June 2009, after 60 trial days. The Prosecution presented 21 witnesses and the Defence 34, including Setako. Closing arguments were heard on 5 and 6 November 2009.

The Prosecution team was led by Ms. Ifeoma Ojemeni Okali and included Mr. Simba Mawere and Ms. Christiana Fomenky. Setako was represented by Professor Lennox Hinds (United States), assisted by Mr. Cainnech Lussiaà-Berdou (Canada). The case was heard by Trial Chamber I, composed of Judges Erik Møse (Norway), presiding, Sergei Alekseevich Egorov (Russian Federation) and Florence Rita Arrey (Cameroon).