The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, composed of Judge Theodor Meron, presiding, Judge Fausto Pocar, Judge Arlette Ramaroson, Judge Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, and Judge Koffi Kumelio A. Afanđe, heard the oral arguments in the appeals lodged by Édouard Karemera, Matthieu Ngirumpatse, and the Prosecution against the trial judgement pronounced by Trial Chamber III on 21 December 2011 and filed in English on 2 February 2012.

The Trial Chamber convicted Karemera and Ngirumpatse under Article 6(1) of the Statute of direct and public incitement to commit genocide, genocide, rape and extermination as crimes against humanity, and violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons as serious violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II.

The Trial Chamber also convicted Karemera under Article 6(3) of the Statute of genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, and violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons as serious violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II.

In addition, the Trial Chamber found Karemera and Ngirumpatse guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide, but did not enter a conviction for this crime on the basis of the principles relating to cumulative convictions. The Trial Chamber sentenced Karemera and Ngirumpatse to life imprisonment.

Karemera and Ngirumpatse contend that the Trial Chamber committed a number of errors of law and fact and request that the Appeals Chamber overturn their respective convictions and acquit them on all counts or, alternatively, reduce their sentences. The Prosecution submits that the Trial Chamber erred in law and in fact in acquitting Karemera and Ngirumpatse in relation to several crimes and/or modes of liabilities. It requests the Appeals Chamber to enter an additional conviction against Karemera and Ngirumpatse or expand the scope of their respective convictions in relation to certain other events.

Karemera was born in 1951 in Mwendo Commune, Kibuye Prefecture, Rwanda. In April 1994, he was First Vice President and Executive Bureau member of the MRND party (le Mouvement Républicain National pour la Démocratie et le Développement). On 25 May 1994, he became Minister of the Interior and Communal Development for the Interim Government. Ngirumpatse was born in 1939 in Tare Commune, Kigali Prefecture,Rwanda. During the relevant events, he was National Party Chairman and Chairman of the MRND Executive Bureau.