The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sitting in Arusha Thursday last week heard oral arguments in the Francois Karera case in which he challenged the ICTR for the life sentence handed to him by Trial Chamber 1 on December 7, 2007. 

The former Governor of Kigali Rural, Francois Karera, who is seeking dismissal of the life sentence imposed by the lower court in December 2007 for his role in the 1994 Genocide.  

Karera was sentenced to life in jail for  actively taking part in mass killing of Tutsis in April 1994 in Kigali Rural, where, according to the former local government arrangement, he was the highest ranking government official. 

In passing the life sentence in 2007, the trial chamber had been convinced that Karera failed to protect his subjects but instead encouraged their extermination.

It is also stated that under his watch, a catholic church in Ntarama which had provided shelter for escaping Tutsi during the Genocide, was razed to the ground and all refugees inside numbering in their hundreds were killed. 

Karera is reported to have encouraged the attackers, as well as ordering the killing of four persons.

Alexandre Bergevin, the Defence Attorney, asked the chamber to reduce the sentence for his client saying he did not have any legitimacy to stop the murder of Tutsis during the Genocide.

Prosecution insisted the life sentence be maintained, saying that irrespective of his job description, Karera participated in the murders by encouraging and ordering the Interahamwe to murder the Tutsis in his area. 

The 69-year-old Karera was convicted on three counts of Genocide and Crimes against humanity but was acquitted of complicity to commit Genocide, as an alternative count to Genocide. 

The decision of the Appeals Chamber in the case will come at a later time which is not yet definite.

Karera, who was playful during proceedings in his appeal, escaped from Rwanda after the Genocide and evaded arrest till he was finally nabbed in Kenya in 2001. He appeared in court for the first time in January 2006. 

The Appeals Chamber which came with its team of assistants from The Hague was composed of Judges Fausto Pocar of Italy (presiding), Mohamed Shabuddeen (Guyana), Liu Daqun (China), Theodor Meron (United States) and Wolfgang Schomburg (Germany).

Ends