Gicumbi Intermediate Court yesterday convicted four men accused of murdering a Ugandan money changer early this year.
Gicumbi Intermediate Court yesterday convicted four men accused of murdering a Ugandan money changer early this year.The court sentenced three men to life and another to 20 years in prison after they were found guilty of murdering Dickson Tinyinondi, 28, on January 17. The incident took place in Rutare Sector, Gicumbi District.The deceased’s body was found burnt in his car at Gasekye Village, about one-and-a-half kilometres off the Gatuna border post.Two of the convicts, Jean Pierre Nzamurambaho and Come Nyakagaragu, Alias Munyamurenge, were sentenced to life imprisonment with special provisions on charges of homicide and degrading acts on the dead body, while Francois Ntakirutimana was sentenced to life imprisonment, Inspector Emmanuel Itamwa Mahame, the spokesperson of courts said yesterday.Shabani Harerimana was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The quartet murdered and robbed Tinyinondi of his Uganda shillings 200 million and later set his vehicle ablaze.How Tinyinonda was murderedPrior to his death, Tinyinodi was a regular traveller to Rwanda, often moving with large sums of money, the reason he became a target.Unknown to Tinyinondi on that fateful evening, a car trailed him from Kigali. The occupants of the trailing car were in touch with one of the convicts, Nzamurambaho, who was driving the deceased.On reaching Kasekye Village, Nzamurambaho signaled to the assailants to overtake them. The plan was for the would-be assailants to overtake and block the road. This was executed effortlessly and the assailants ordered Tinyinondi out of the car. The Ugandan trader, oblivious of the fatal plans refused to get out of the car. But Harerimana forcibly got money from the stupefied trader.After stashing all the money Tinyinondi had, his car was driven off the road to a place where he was butchered with machetes before his mutilated remains were set ablaze in the car.After the murder, the assailants drove away to share the loot. The driver of the deceased was given Euro 6,000 (Rwf5m) while others took varying amounts depending on the roles they played.The police recovered Rwf10m, more than three million Uganda Shillings (about Rwf 800,000), as well as Euro 3,043 (Rwf2.5m) from the suspects.