ARUSHA - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has released Joseph Nzabirinda, a former Rwandan youth organiser after serving his seven year jail sentence.

Nzabarinda, 51, was set free on Friday from the special UN Detention Facility (UNDF) in Arusha and was met by his defence counsel, François Roux, at the facility’s entrance gate.  He was arrested in 2001 in Belgium while working as an investigator for an ICTR defence team.

The former youth leader pleaded guilty in 2006 and was convicted for murder in 2007. He was sentenced to seven years in jail with credit of six years that he had already spent in detention awaiting his trial. He admitted having taken part, during the genocide, in organising meetings aimed at carrying out massacres.

The ICTR Spokesperson, Roland Amoussouga, confirmed the release and said that Nzabarinda would now decide on how he wanted to spend the rest of his life. 

"He is free man now, he will decide on how to use his freedom,” Amoussouga told The Sunday Times yesterday. 

Rwanda’s Special Government Representative to the ICTR, Alloys Mutabingwa, said that Nzabarinda’s jail time should serve as a wakeup call for whoever thinks that they can evade justice by being under the UN-ICTR cover. According to media reports, Nzabarinda expressed interest in joining his family which currently lives Belgium.

Nzabarinda becomes the third person to be released after Elizaphan Ntakirutimana and Vincent Rutaganira who served ten and six year prison sentences respectively.

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