Two former ‘generals’ of the FLN-MRCD militia group have appealed that court give credit to the period when they were detained in DR Congo and add it to their jail sentence as given to them by the High Court Chamber for International and Cross Border Crimes.

The two men – ‘Maj Gen’ Felicien Nsanzubukire and ‘Maj Gen Anastase Munyaneza – were sentenced to five years and according to them, their date of detention should be counted from 2017 when they were arrested by DR Congo security authorities.

This would mean that they would have one year left to their sentence before they are released.

Appearing before the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, the two men said that they were arrested in the neighbouring country by local authorities there and detained for several months before they were finally repatriated to Rwanda in 2020 to face justice.

They are part of a group of 12 convicts of the FLN trial, who, for various reasons are appealing against the respective penalties handed to them by the High Court in September last year.

"I had requested the High Court during the earlier proceedings, that in case I get penalized with a jail term, it should be counted with reference to when I was arrested in the DRC – that is February 9, 2017. However, I find that the High Court did not say anything in regard to my request. Now I ask that in your judgment you will do something about it,” Nsanzubukire told the HCCICC judges.

Nsanzubukire features on a sanctions list by the UN Security Council where he is accused of supervising and coordinating the trafficking of ammunition and weapons in the DR Congo, at the time when he a senior commander in FDLR – another anti-Rwandan group operating in the neighbouring country.

After a disagreement, he later teamed up with Munyaneza and other senior commanders to form the FLN militia group.

Speaking to the judges, Munyaneza also presented the same plea as Nsanzubukire.

In response, Prosecutor Bonaventure Ruberwa told the court that the convicts’ reasons are not valid, since their arrest in the DR Congo was not related to the crimes they later faced in Rwandan courts of law.

"The casefile compiled by the (Rwandan) investigators is dated July 15, 2020, and we can say that is when they were apprehended by the local authorities,” he said.

"It is true they were first arrested in the DRC - by that country’s security agencies. But the reason for which they were arrested are not related to what they were prosecuted for. If the DRC’s security agencies arrest people who are in illegal armed groups there, it is their right, because they are breaking the country’s laws. They (Munyaneza and Nsanzubukire) were not arrested under any international warrant of arrest issued by Rwanda concerning them,” he added.

Meanwhile, the other 10 convicts who appealed gave a number of reasons, for example, some say that the High Court failed to consider mitigating circumstances in an adequate way that should have led to lesser jail terms for them.

In addition, there are those who say that there wasn’t enough evidence for them to be convicted of some crimes, among other reasons.

The FLN is the militia outfit that was behind the 2018 and 2019 attacks in South-Western Rwanda, where at least nine unarmed civilians lost their lives, more others injured and property destroyed or looted.

The appeal trial continues on Friday, February 4.