Editor,

RE: Rwanda welcomes imprisonment of Genocide suspect in Sweden (The New Times May 17)

First of all, I would like to thank you for reporting about the recent trial of Claver Berinkindi, who was sentenced to life by the Stockholm District Court for his role in the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. I want to briefly talk about myself and my role in this case. I am a Swedish lawyer who is principally working in the area of international law. In Sweden, we have so far dealt with two cases concerning suspects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

(The first was Stanislas Mbanenande and now Berinkindi).

In these two cases, I have (as the only Swedish lawyer) represented the interests of the victims/survivors living in Rwanda and because of this undertaking, I have so far visited Rwanda 12 times.

In these two cases, both convicts had become naturalised citizens of Sweden (that explains the fact that Sweden cannot extradite them to Rwanda).

You correctly reported that the court awarded damages for 15 Genocide victims.

However, I want to make a clarification, concerning the assertion in your story that in case the convict is indigent, the Swedish government could foot the bill and pay these reparations.

Unfortunately, this is not the case because according to the Swedish law, the government can only do that when the crime the person is convicted of was committed on Swedish territory, which is not the case for Berinkindi.

Most importantly however, police during the investigations that preceded Berinkindi’s arrest, had found money in his house that is equivalent to Rwf22 million and has since kept custody of it. This money will, after the case is exhaustively adjudicated, be retained to pay for the damages as awarded by the court.

Looking forward to working more closely with you.

Göran Hjalmarsson